


The Curse of the Burromuerto Family

by Signel_chan



Category: Total Drama
Genre: Babies, F/M, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-24
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-14 20:26:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 53,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3424469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neither Heather nor Alejandro exactly like admitting that they're wrong or that they're in over their heads, and that makes for a lot of them not seeing eye-to-eye about things. Especially things where one of them knows how it's going to be, and the other is fiercely determined to make sure that she gets her way. They're young, they're dumb, and they're definitely messing up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Things Begin With Kisses and Denial

**Author's Note:**

  * For [elephant_bubbles](https://archiveofourown.org/users/elephant_bubbles/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a young reality show wedding that everyone thinks is going to fail, but the bride and groom hope to prove everyone wrong--and definitely succeed with just that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! You're reading the first chapter of many of a birthday fic for someone who means a whole awful lot to me. I hope she enjoys this fic that's tailored to her specific tastes as much as I've enjoyed writing it so far! :D

Whirlwind romances normally happened when two people met for the first time out of the blue and fell hard in love with each other, not when they were forced to compete against each other in a reality competition, which ended with one indirectly nearly killing the other, just for them to have to compete against each other again. But something in that long chain of fighting and being enemies with each other sparked a romantic attraction that only grew as there was more competition, eventually ending with lots of kissing and cute couple things. But no matter how much they may have thought they were in love with the other, there was so much that they still needed to learn before they were ready to spend the rest of forever with each other.

Problem was, neither Heather nor Alejandro liked admitting that they weren’t prepared for something, and if that meant that they were just going to rush into things simply because they didn’t want the other to know they weren’t ready for it, then that was just how it was going to be. There was the chance that one of them could easily back out of everything, but with the level of planning they were doing for just being two people who were so convinced they were the other’s perfect match, that chance was incredibly slim.

They weren’t even twenty years old and they were attempting to prepare themselves for the rest of their lives. As the talks grew more and more serious, everything seemed like it was actually going to fall together perfectly in place—until one morning where Heather woke up to find that Alejandro was gone, with nothing telling her where he went. For weeks it was like he had never been there in the first place, and although she was broken up over the fact that her “perfect” relationship she thought she had was over, there wasn’t much she did about it. That was, until he came back as mysteriously as he had left, giving no explanation as to where or why he had gone, only that he had done it to make sure he loved her as much as he insisted he did.

Within a week, they were engaged, and not even six months later they were getting married. They were two people who barely knew themselves, let alone each other, and they were taking the step to make sure that they would indeed be together forever. It was a bigger affair than it needed to be; after all, they were still so young and the possibility that everything they were doing on that late spring day would go up in flames within a year. The guest list was something to behold, with everyone they had ever crossed paths with together being invited, and most of those people showed up just to watch in horror at what was happening. For the vast majority of the cast of Total Drama, they thought this was just another way that those two would be getting a spotlight that they didn’t need, and watching it was a lot like being a piece of history that would looked back on in laughter later.

The media wasn’t invited, odd as many different gossip magazines had eaten up the news of the event like they were starving for things to publish, but someone who definitely did attend the wedding may have leaked her personal pictures of everything at a steep price. (It would not be the last time that Sierra did such a thing, as she couldn’t be trusted with anything, but not inviting her would be like ignoring the fact that she had eliminated herself to set up possibly the greatest finale of any reality show, ever: completely wrong.) Leaked alongside those pictures was a shaky cell phone video, taken from three rows back from the altar, which documented the vows of the couple, who looked so young and out of place standing before everyone, doing something that should have been reserved for when they were older and knew better.

The video, which was about ten minutes in length and posted to the internet the night after it was taken, was the only way that the shunned media, as well as the people who weren’t given invitations to the event, were able to see what had happened. The single problem with the video wasn’t that it shook and made it hard to see everything clearly—but that’s what pictures of the same moment were for—but rather that, right as they were starting to finish up and say “I do” to being together for the rest of their lives, someone in the row in front of the cameraperson began to speak in near-rapid Spanish.

“Oh, come on,” someone next to the camera said, tapping on the person’s shoulder to get them to stop. “We’re going to miss hearing what we’re all here for.” The person looked back, raised a perfectly-sculpted eyebrow, and turned just to continue on with his conversation, leaving the other person to sigh. “Whatever. Not like I actually cared for either of those two anyway.”

“Shush, will you?” This time it was the person holding the camera, quite obviously Sierra, who spoke, her voice loud in the replay of the video. “I have got to get this recorded to show the world what they’re missing!”

“Like the world actually cares about this.” The camera turned from the altar to the person sitting next to her, who was looking at her with a confused expression upon her face. “What, did you expect me to say the world loves these two vile people? I know I’m only here because I can’t wait for this to go down in flames. If you want to make money off of it, go for it, but I’m telling you, give it a year. They’ll be long broken up by then.”

Sierra could be heard scoffing as she turned her camera back up front. “Whatever you say, Gwen,” she said, before zooming in to get a shaky, but decent, look at the faces of the bride and groom, who seemed to be happier than she’d ever seen them as they were being made officially each other’s. As everyone cheered as they went in for their first kiss as a married couple, the camera got knocked out of Sierra’s hands, and the last thing seen before it went to black was the bottoms of pants and dresses of the viewing crowd.

True to what Sierra believed by taking the video and having others taking pictures of the event for her, the part of the world that cared about reality show contestants loved every moment of what they were given. Message boards across the internet lit up with discussion about the wedding, from curious questions about the designers for the clothes to rudely-intentioned bets about how long the marriage would last before it broke apart. And that was that night alone, while there was still celebration and revelry going on for the new union. There was dancing, drinking, and a lot of getting along for a bunch of people that overall hated the people that were the reason they were they, but the third fact could easily be attributed to the second one, and the only person who even knew that there was beginning to be a bit of an online frenzy about what had happened was the person actively uploading evidence of the event online.

“I hope that no one can tell where this is based on that stuff,” she said to herself as she sat in the corner, away from everyone who was partying and having a good time. “Last thing I need is someone coming here for their own pictures. Why does someone else need to get the scoop when I’ve already got it?”

“Huh. Pretty sure we made it clear on the invitation that no personal electronics were allowed.” The voice startled Sierra, and she slammed her laptop shut, yanking her phone’s cord away from it, and she looked up to see a beautifully crafted wedding dress before her. As sheepishly as she could, her eyes tracked upward, meeting with the icy cold glare, one that no amount of makeup could soften, that Heather was giving her. “What do you think you’re doing, bringing that in?”

“You know me, can’t go a moment without checking my blogs.” Sierra hoped her lie wasn’t too obvious, but she figured she had long since been ratted out about filming the ceremony, and if that were the case, nothing she could say would defend her actions. “Shouldn’t you be, like, spending time with your honey or something?”

“I should be, but he’s with his family and I don’t really feel like listening to a conversation I can’t understand. Shouldn’t you be doing things that were allowed and not posting about this online?” Heather narrowed her eyes even more as she made her glare more intense. “Because, obviously, that’s what you’re doing. We know you were taking pictures.”

Sierra’s jaw opened in shock and she started mentally writing her will, making sure to leave everything that mattered to people she cared about, before she replied. “Okay, so I had to take some pictures, but it was for my own personal viewing, I swear! How could I resist sneaking in a camera or three when you’re such a gorgeous bride?”

“You’re giving a terrible excuse. You knew we had professional photographers here to get pictures of how beautiful I look, so don’t try and kiss up to me to get me to not chew you out for what you’ve done.” Holding her hand out as if she expected Sierra to just give her phone over for a check for illegal pictures, Heather was quite surprised when it was someone else who put something in her hand instead.

Rather, it was another hand that grabbed her and pulled her closer to their body. “ _Mi amor_ , what are you doing over here when there are many better things you could be doing, such as dancing, or socializing with someone such as myself?” There was something in the way that Alejandro was looking at his new wife that made Sierra want to use her phone to take a picture of the tender moment, but she realized that doing that while she was still in trouble for being caught doing just that was not a good idea.

“No thanks, I’ve got a rat to punish.” The moment ended as quickly as it started, with Heather pulling away to get herself back in front of Sierra, hand still opened to take what she desired. “Hand it over so I can see exactly what you took to share out on your dumb blog.”

“I don’t have anything on my phone, don’t worry.” Doing as she was asked, Sierra was proud to know that she wasn’t lying, and the look of disappointment that made its way onto Heather’s face once she looked and saw that Sierra was indeed telling the truth was almost worth it. “I looked at the pictures, saw that they weren’t very good, and deleted them. Besides, like you totally said, there were professionals around doing that for me.”

“Uh huh, see, I’m sure you’re hiding the pictures somewhere, but the thing is, I don’t want to worry about searching everything you’ve got here with you to find them.” The bride, still with her look of anger and disappointment on not finding what she was looking for on her face, motioned to her groom, who seemed to still be waiting for her to go off with him. “I’ll be watching you and whatever you’re planning on doing, even if I’m spending time with him. Got that?”

Sierra nodded, but once Heather had her back turned to her, she couldn’t help but giggle a bit. “Man, I lucked out on that one big time. Bet I won’t get so lucky if I try and snap more pictures, though, so I guess my eager readers are going to have to deal with no reception photos. They’ll understand, I bet. Either that, or they’ll hate me forever. I hope it’s not the second one.”

“What are you doing over here?” Much like when she had been approached the first time, Sierra was startled to hear someone coming to talk to her, but her panic level dropped to nonexistent levels when she saw that it was only Cody coming to talk. “I would have figured you’d have been kicked out by now, with all the stuff you said you were going to do that we were told not to do.”

“It almost happened, actually,” she replied, standing up and tucking her electronics away somewhere safe. “I don’t know why you care, though. Bet you’d love to see me get kicked out of here.”

He shrugged, and she smiled a bit. “I wouldn’t say I’d love it, but with what Gwen told me you were doing during the ceremony, I’m surprised it hasn’t happened.”

“Gwen told you that I was filming it?” Sierra’s eyes went wide, and she began to scan the room to see where the darkly-dressed goth girl was to possibly give her a piece of her mind. “Of course she would. I mean, you get assigned to sit next to someone and they’re the one person around that’ll tell everyone what you’ve done.”

“Actually, she only told me because I asked.” Cody tugged a bit at the tie around his neck, becoming uncomfortable with the fact that his conversation with Sierra had lasted more than a sentence or two. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’m going to try and score a dance or two with some of the hot ladies here.” Without much else, he walked off, and she stood frozen for a moment, before chasing off after him.

The partying continued well into the night, and when all was said and done, everyone who had attended considered it an overall success, even though the reason for celebration was one that no one really expected to last much longer than the party itself did. The only people who had faith in the marriage were the two who were part of it, and they made sure to let everyone know that they expected their love to last forever. As the attendees all made their leave, they made sure that them kissing was the final image in their minds. The passion and seemingly true love that they shared made everyone, no matter how tired or inebriated they were, think that maybe there was some hope for the relationship.

And after they returned from their weeks-long honeymoon that took them to several different exotic locations, there was even less room to doubt that they were being serious with this relationship. They seemed happier than they ever had been before, more than willing to take on their new adult responsibilities that they gained by getting married, and there was not a day that went by that they didn’t seem to love being in the other’s company. In fact, as the days kept going by, it seemed like things were only getting better, with smiles and affection and a glow in their appearances that didn’t seem to fade.

People began to get suspicious about what may be going on, but whatever suspicions were there, no one really got the chance to ask about them, unless they were lucky enough to catch either of them on their own and in a good mood. The thing was, when they were together everything was seemingly sunshine and rainbows, but if they were apart, it was a completely different story, and for a good reason. If Alejandro was on his own, it was due to him doing odd jobs for his father, trying to make himself look like someone any employer would want to hire—he was an ex-reality star, and that automatically made him seem like he would be difficult to work with. If Heather was on her own, she would try to make herself seem like just another person, and if someone approached her she couldn’t use the excuse of “trying to work” to get out of the interaction.

Instead, she got to use the excuse that she had better things to be doing than talking to strangers or members of the media, and it would get whoever was talking to her to back off. It didn’t keep them from noticing how she still looked like she had that newlywed glow on her skin, nor did it stop them from seeing that she was being more modest in her choice of clothing, even though it was midsummer by that point. The number of theories of what was going on that would cause one of them to want to become a working man and the other to become shyer with her appearance started to dwindle, especially as time went on and there became only one logical answer to the situation.

Like she had been with the first wedding pictures posted to the public, Sierra was the answer to everyone’s questions and guessing, even if she didn’t mean to be. For everyone in the Total Drama cast that she could get to, she tried to make sure that she was spending some time with them at least once a month. She made her living off blog ad revenue, and how was she going to get viewers to her blogs if she wasn’t getting gossip from the sources? Her appearance at the sprawling house that the married couple had gotten as a gift from one of their parents wasn’t announced or expected, and so when the front door opened and Sierra was standing there, naturally Heather’s reaction was to instantly slam the door closed on her, but the few precious seconds the door was open was enough for Sierra to know what was up.

She didn’t have absolute confirmation, though, and no blog post on the matter would be believed if she couldn’t prove her point. She needed a picture or a statement, or maybe both to prove even the biggest naysayers. “Please let me in,” she said in a high-pitched voice that would make dogs whine as she banged on the door. “Please, it’s just me! We’re friends, right? Friends let friends in!”

“Not in a million years, you crazy woman.” Having locked the door and now standing with her back up against it, Heather covered her face with both hands and shook her head, realizing what had just happened. “You are seriously the last person we need around here right now, okay?”

“I swear I’m just here to see how you guys are doing! It’s been like months since the wedding, and everyone online’s been asking about you two and I can’t answer their questions because you two won’t talk to anyone!” The door was being banged on rapidly, and would have been drowning out what Sierra was saying, had Sierra not been screaming it. “I won’t take pictures, I promise!”

“That’s what you said when you came to the wedding, and yet you still took them then! And you made money off of them, might I add.” Heather had moved her hands from her face and now had one of them on the locked doorknob, the other hand resting elsewhere. She glanced around a few times, seeing if the other person in the house was around, which he wasn’t, and then she turned, quickly unlocking the door and opening it just a crack. “Say you’ll give us some of the money you’ll make from this and I’ll let you in.”

Sierra’s eyes widened, and her first instinct was to look through the crack in the door to see if she could make anything out, but all that was visible to her was Heather’s face. “I don’t know, why should I give you money when I’m sure you’re super rich or something? I need this money to make a living, you know!”

“And we’d need the money to…ugh, okay, whatever. Not going to waste my breath arguing with you about this.” Again the door slammed shut and was locked once more, but rather than remaining at it, Heather walked away and back to the bedroom that she and Alejandro shared, and when she got to its doorway she hit the door as hard as she could, causing a loud banging sound that woke the sleeping man in the bed up. He sat up, looking around wildly for a moment before he saw his wife in the doorway, and once they had made eye contact for more than a second she motioned for him to get up. “I need you to take care of an unwanted someone who’s here snooping around,” Heather explained as she watched Alejandro stretch, run his fingers through his hair to make it look presentable, and finally get up and approach her. “And I know you’ll take care of it a lot better than I would.”

“While that is not entirely true, as I know how much you like verbally destroying such snoops, we both know why you are coming to me for this.” When he was close enough, Alejandro grabbed Heather into a hug, wrapping his arms tightly around her and letting his hands rest where they landed, which was on her sides. “Who is it today? Do we know them? Shall I be aggressive or kind with them?”

As she pushed him off of her, taking special care to get his hands off first, Heather rolled her eyes and replied, “It doesn’t matter what you do. It’s Sierra, and she’s here because she wants to know. I told her that she could know if she gave us half the money she’d make from the news, but obviously she didn’t buy into that.”

“Of course she would not fall for something as simple as that. She wants to know what everyone else wants, and she wants to know before them. Now let us go take care of her and her desires before she starts to make wild guesses and make this harder for us.” This time wrapping only one arm around her shoulders, Alejandro started them walking back towards the front door, the noises of Sierra’s frantic knocking growing louder with every step. As they walked, he talked more about what he was thinking of doing, but he was acting on the assumption that the door had not yet been opened, a fact that Heather knew she was going to have to tell him eventually.

“I’m not leaving until this door gets opened and I get facts!” Sierra could be heard screaming from the other side of the door. “I’ve seen enough to know what’s going on, but I need the truth, please!”

“She has, ahem, seen enough?” Alejandro took his arm from around his wife’s shoulder and turned to look at her, crossing his arms in front of him. “Is there a piece to the story of her being here that you have neglected to tell me?”

She had known that she would have to tell him that she had opened the door when Sierra had first shown up, but she had figured she would have had the time to do it before it was said anyway. “I may have forgotten to check to see who it was before I opened it. It’s too early in the day for this, okay? Slipped my mind that we’re hiding some big secret here.” At that, Heather took a deep breath, looked into Alejandro’s eyes, and shook her head. “I’m going to have to give her what she wants, aren’t I?”

“It is either that, or have her share what she knows with the world in an incomplete form and have everyone on us for the sake of solving this problem.” He also shook his head, giving her a stern look as he did. “However, as it is still quite early today and I can tell by looking at you that whatever pictures she will inevitably take will be unflattering, if you want to take a moment to ready yourself for this, I will do the honors of explaining the situation to her.”

Taking no time to decide to accept his offer, Heather walked back to the bedroom and, making sure to close the door behind her, started to ready herself for what was about to happen. As she searched for the perfect outfit to wear for the occasion, she could hear Sierra’s reactions to everything that she knew Alejandro was telling her, and with every squeal and gasp that came from the sitting room, Heather knew that this was going to be one of the worst experiences in her life. But, as things tend to, it could only get worse, and getting “worse” in this situation could only be one thing: some sort of wardrobe malfunction, one that couldn’t be fixed with the magic of picking something else to wear.

The offender in this situation was her absolute favorite pair of shorts, which up until this very moment had been perfectly fine whenever she wore them. It seemed that it was no more, though, because no matter how hard she tried, she simply could not get the button even remotely close to the hole where it belonged. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she muttered as she made several attempts to get it fastened, all of which ended in failure. “I am _not_ going out there with my pants undone.”

After giving it one last shot, which was completely futile, she gave up, making a mental note that she needed to do something about that before changing back into her pajama shorts that were snug but still fit. Out in the sitting room she could hear her name being called and she scrambled to finish getting ready, hoping that there wouldn’t be any more snags in the process. Naturally, there was, but it was one that had been expected after the first problem, and although the shirt technically did fit and covered what needed to be covered, it was slightly restricting in how tight it was, and if it wasn’t for the fact that her name was being called even more at that point, Heather probably would have searched for one that wouldn’t be so tight. But she needed to go give a definitive answer to what she had accidentally started when she had opened the front door, and that meant having no room to breathe.

Sierra’s reaction to what she got to see was a lot more toned-down than expected, all thanks to the amount of time there had been for Alejandro to explain everything to her. It didn’t mean she wasn’t going to jump up from her comfy couch spot and scream in excitement, though, nor did it mean she wasn’t going to run over to Heather and grab her hands in an attempt to get her to look excited about what was happening. “Oh em gee, everyone online was so right!” Sierra gushed, letting go of the hands she was holding to jump up and down a bit in her excitement. “But they were all guessing, and I bet they didn’t think that someone would actually get to prove them all right! I’m so taking pictures of you like this, okay?”

“I don’t really think I have a choice, do I?” Heather replied, shooting a glare over at Alejandro, who smiled back at her. “He told you everything, huh?”

“He sure did! When you guys rushed to get married, let me say that everyone thought that you guys were going to turn around and tell the world that you only did that because you were having a baby then, but I guess you guys just loved each other so much that you did it in the right order! I’m so super excited for you two though!” Sierra stopped her bouncing and grabbed her phone out of her pocket—had she known she was going to find out what was going on and get the chance to have photographic proof, she would have brought a real camera, but she was going to have to make do with what she had. “Now let me get a big happy smile on your face for this picture!”

“I’d rather die than look happy for this.” That may have been what she said, but after some coaxing from both of the people present, Heather did give in and give a bit of a smile for the pictures Sierra took, and when all three of them were looking at the best picture from the shoot, the only positive thing she could say about it was the fact that she looked a bit happy.

“This is such a cute picture though!” Sierra had returned to bouncing a bit, unable to contain her excitement in a stationary position. “It totally catches your happiness about the baby, and it also shows off the fact that there _is_ a baby really well!” After several more moments of everyone looking at the picture, she had one last question that what she had just said made her think of: “What’s it gonna be, anyway?”

Right as Heather answered that it was going to be a girl, Alejandro happened to reply that it was a boy, and the mixed answers caught Sierra by surprise. She stopped her bouncing just to look between them, as they gave each other a shocked look, followed by glaring to try and establish dominance over the other’s answer.

* * *

The truth was, although they had been given the chance to know what the baby was, neither of them wanted to face the fact that there was the possibility that it wasn’t the gender they wanted. Even that wasn’t the full truth for why they didn’t know, but that truth was something that one of them didn’t want to so much as mention or think about. The short version of the story was that one of them had a family history of all children on one parent’s side being all of one gender.

The long version of the story was a lot more complicated, and made Heather cringe whenever she was reminded of it when she insisted that the child she carried inside of her was female. Going back for countless generations, there was a strange occurrence that every child of a couple in the Burromuerto family was male. Every single one. And since this child would be fitting that lone criterion that seemed to somehow determine its gender, there was really no choice but to accept that as reality, whether they officially found out before it was born or not. Or, that was how Alejandro seemed to want things to be. Heather, on the other hand, wanted to fight that for as long as she could, with as much of her being as she could devote to the cause.

There was one reason for the way she refused to accept that fact, and it actually had nothing to do at all with it being something that her other half was in complete agreement with. It went back to when she had been growing up and had seen the absolute terror her younger brother had been, and while she hadn’t exactly been the easiest kid to raise, she was definitely easier to put up with than he was. So she had always had it set in her mind that if she were to have a child someday, she wanted to have a girl to love and raise. And she did not want to accept it that she had married into a family that seemed to only ever have boys, if only because of that one reason.

That reason, that desire from her youth, was also the biggest factor in why they had made sure to not actually find out the child’s gender. Sure, it was completely stupid and there wasn’t anything they were going to do about it regardless of if it was male or female, but there was some satisfaction in knowing that neither of them were sure which one of them was right in the argument—and, truthfully, if it wasn’t for the fact that Alejandro was so convinced that his family’s history had already given them their answer, they would have found out the first chance they got. But because he was so insistent that they didn’t need to know, and Heather was really hoping that he was wrong, they decided to keep it unknown for as long as they could.

That plan didn’t last as long as they thought it would. In the weeks following Sierra’s visit, and subsequent reveal to the world that they were having a baby, any time either of them would go out in public there would be at least one person asking about the child’s gender, and there would be no hesitation in saying whichever gender the to-be-parent being asked preferred. But after a month or two of that, when they figured it was about time to start making preparations for the baby, the problem of what they should be preparing for reared its ugly head. He wanted typically masculine colors, she wanted more feminine ones, and they couldn’t be bothered to agree on anything.

Rather than trying to come to a compromise then, they decided that they would simply put it off until it was absolutely necessary to do something in the way of preparing. Their stubbornness on the matter was going to inevitably shoot them in the feet, as the more time that passed, the more the child grew, and the more the child grew, the less Heather felt like she wanted to agree with anything Alejandro had to say. She wanted to be the one who was right, because she was the one sacrificing her beauty for the sake of even having this kid, and what was in it for her if she wasn’t having what she wanted? As would be pointed out every time she made that argument, she would be getting the same things regardless of what the child was—the only thing their gender really determined was what parts they would have.

Something about that point finally got through to her and made her realize that, if they were to have anything set up for the baby when his or her time came to be part of their world (and, as by this point she was nearing being seven months pregnant, she was doing a lot of thinking about when that would happen), they should actually know what it was going to be, if only to not have to reach a compromise that was never going to happen.

There would be no fun in just going and finding out what it was, though, not with all the bickering they had done back and forth about what they preferred. That was where the idea of a celebration where that revelation was the centerpiece came from, and with celebrations came gifts and time spent basking in the attention of people they cared about. What could possibly go wrong with that, they asked themselves. And what could go wrong most certainly did.

They had set the date for this “party” for a week or so after the turn of the year, and sent out invitations to everyone they knew just because they believed that more people being invited would result in more people arriving, and more gifts for them to enjoy. For the few weeks between coming up with the idea for such a party and it actually happening, there were not only holidays that had to be celebrated, but there was a lot of planning that had to go into the party that needed to be done. By the time the set date rolled around, they had done everything quite literally except buy any gendered baby-related items, and done it all in a way that they could roll with whatever the big reveal told them.

This was, of course, even with their different opinions. They had managed to compromise enough to compile a potential name list for the child, having several options for each gender, although they both had one name on their specific side that they very strongly wanted to use. They had also managed to find a bakery that understood the circumstances of needing a cake with a center filled of specifically-colored frosting (which had its color determined by the contents of an envelope that the bakery was not allowed to discuss with the customers, at all), and took one step further by decorating the outside of the cake in designs suitable of either boys or girls.

It was going to be absolutely perfect and settle an argument that had been going on for months, but an hour after the party’s start time it became completely obvious that _no one_ actually cared. Well, except for them and one curious woman named Sierra, who would naturally be the only person to show up. “I didn’t know what to bring, so I just brought some money. That should be good, yeah?” It wasn’t the only thing she had brought, as she did have her camera with her to take pictures, but she was quite clearly talking gifts.

However, with her being the only person in attendance, her even having a gift didn’t matter anymore. Her camera was what would be causing problems. “Sorry, but you are not taking any pictures here today. The absolute last thing I want is for you to post about this online and have people feel pity for how ugly I look.” Like she had way back at the wedding reception, Heather stuck her hand out and motioned for Sierra to hand over her camera, but just like back then, there was an interruption in the form of Alejandro. Unlike the other time he had interrupted a similar situation, he wasn’t there to grab his wife’s hand, but rather to drop to his knees before her and look up at her. “Oh, great, what do you want? I’m trying to tell her she can’t take pictures, and you’re going to make her want to.”

“It would be a terrible thing to have dear Sierra come all this way with no sort of proof she was even here,” he replied, placing his hands on the sides of Heather’s quite large stomach, smiling up at her as he did. “Surely we can spare a moment or two and give her some quality pictures, _mi amor_.”

“Of course you’re okay with that. You don’t look like you’re hiding something gigantic under your shirt, or like you haven’t slept well in weeks, or even like there’s anything different in your life. That’s all me.” Rolling her eyes, she knew she stood no chance at getting her way in the matter because after her rebuttal, Alejandro started to kiss all over her stomach, which gave just enough of a tickling sensation that she laughed. Something about her laughter caused the child inside of her to want to be part of the fun and it began kicking, which turned her laughing into small gasps in pain.

This was what Sierra took a lot of pictures of, all for the sake of sharing with the followers on her blog, and when she was done she walked off in the direction of the cake. But even with her not there holding her camera, the two stayed in position, although it wasn’t by choice for one of them. He kept kneeling, holding and kissing her, for several minutes, and when he was finally done with the kisses, he rested his forehead on her, closing his eyes and thinking about something or other. She tapped one of her feet, hoping to break him from whatever thoughts he had seemingly gotten lost in, but it wasn’t her actions that would return him to reality. Nor was it the fact that, underneath his hands, he could feel strong little kicks that could almost move where those hands rested.

No, it was Sierra, yelling from the other room, “Wow, this cake is so cool! I didn’t know they could make cakes with blue frosting inside of them!” At one of those words, in a simultaneous moment, he looked back up, a smug smile on his face and nodding, and Heather looked down at him, her eyes wide as she slowly shook her head. Seeing her reaction, his smile only got bigger and seemingly more smug—as even after all her denial and refusal to accept his word, it looked like that what he had said all along was true: his family only ever had boys.


	2. A Romantic Turn Of Events

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, things happen exactly as they should be expected to. But when babies are involved, there's always a little bit of mystery--but does that mean that there's no celebrating Valentine's Day? No, of course not. Just do it early.

In the last few weeks before the arrival of their son, there were a lot of things that were deemed necessary to be done before there was the presence of a child that they would never to be able to shake off. And while all the required things were useful—for instance, there were a handful of classes that Alejandro’s parents had signed them up for, and those had taught them a lot about what parenting would be like—there was something lacking in the fun and relaxation department in those few weeks. How were either of them supposed to enjoy the last moments before their lives permanently changed, when they were both having to do a long list of things that had to be done?

The answer came in the form of a dinner date the night before Valentine’s Day, one that had been in the works for a few months. When asked, by Heather, about why he would make a reservation out at a nice restaurant the night before the biggest romantic holiday of the year, while knowing that there was a chance that the evening would not go according to plan, Alejandro shrugged and refused to say anything on the matter. To him, there was nothing that could go wrong that night, no matter how much she reminded him that there were a lot of things that could already have gone wrong, and still more that could. “Yes, but nothing has happened yet, and we are not going to worry about that,” he said as he smiled at her, before kissing her on the cheek. “Everything will be fine if you let it be fine.”

“I don’t think I should be listening to you about this, but whatever. I bet if I keep arguing with you, you’ll force me into going whether I want to or not.” Pulling her head away so that she couldn’t be kissed again, Heather rolled her eyes and sighed. “But okay, let’s just pretend that nothing can go wrong. We’ll have a great night, right?”

“One of the best we will ever have,” he corrected, placing a hand on the round and swollen curve of his wife’s stomach, “as it will be one of the last nights we have without the living presence of our little one.”

“First of all, he’s alive in there. Don’t act like he’s dead. Secondly, all that talk there was just pretending. Something bad is going to happen out on this little ‘date’ you’ve planned for us, and I’m pretty sure we both know what it is.” Again rolling her eyes, Heather pushed his hand off of her before speaking further. “I can’t believe you honestly think this is a good idea. I mean, yeah, great, going out to dinner, that’s a lovely gesture, but on a night where it’s going to be busy? Oh, and let’s not forget the fact that I could easily have this baby at any moment, shall we?”

Alejandro looked concerned for just a moment, before shaking whatever thoughts had clouded his mind away. “Is that what your issue with this is? I would not worry too much with that, as what is the chance that it would really happen while we are out? This date is to take your mind off of that, not to make you think more about it.”

“Well, it’s not working. Last thing I want is to start going through childbirth while we’re out at dinner. It would just ruin everything.” The tone of her voice sounded like she was trying to make a joke, but there was no humor in the seriousness of her glare that she was shooting at the man who was once again resting a hand on her. “I don’t want to go out, not tonight, not tomorrow night, not on that night, not any night, until this child is out of me and I look like a normal person again.”

“Such strong words, but if I told you that I could not take back this reservation even if one of us were to die, would it change your mind?” He got the answer he expected, a firm no, and even though the word lessened the harshness of the glare a bit, he knew he was going to have to try a bit harder to get her to go through with what he had planned. “Hm, well that is the truth, as I have already attempted to change when we shall go in to a better time and they have refused.”

“That’s nice. Don’t really care. Still not going.” The glare grew harsher again, her eyes narrowed about as small as they could get without being closed. “Did you really think that this was ever a good idea?”

“Truthfully, the date of the reservation and the expected arrival date of our son did not seem as close together as they are back when I made the reservation.” Putting a finger to his chin, Alejandro couldn’t help but laugh a little about that. “But the moment I realized there was less than a week between the two dates, I can assure you that I tried to change the one I could have some control over.”

While it was a good explanation, it wasn’t enough to convince Heather to change her stance on things. “You’re still not dragging me out like this,” she told him, and before he could try to talk her into seeing things his way again, she turned completely away from him. “I get it, you want us to do something with it being just us before things change, but I’m not running that risk. No way.”

“Please, _mi amor_ , this means a lot to me and I would really like you to—“ He was silenced by her shushing him, giving him an obscene hand gesture before she walked (or, more accurately, waddled) off to do whatever she felt she needed to be doing then. After resisting the temptation to laugh at how ridiculous she was, the realization sank in that he hadn’t been able to convince her to do what he wanted, and with the dinner being a handful of days from their current moment, he needed to come up with something.

Or, rather, something that wasn’t him needed to be able to change her mind, as his attempts at sweet talking her into going through with his wishes were never going to work. That something came in the form of mass media and its push to make everyone want to celebrate the romance holiday in some way, shape, or form, and being subjected to all the different advertisements on the matter was able to get Heather to accept that, if she wanted to do anything for the holiday, she was going to have to go through with that date. When she rather dejectedly told Alejandro that she had changed her mind about it, he didn’t react like he was shocked or surprised. Instead, he took her hand and nearly dragged her into one of the many spare rooms that their house had, one that she had never been in before that day.

And in that room, hanging in the closet like it had been there all along, was a long gown that she figured was what she was going to have to wear for the occasion. “I, ahem, purchased this at about the same time I made the dinner reservation, so I do apologize if it is not quite the correct size. But I am sure that you will be able to make do with it, regardless of if it fits correctly or not.” She looked at him with a bit of anger in her eyes, before realizing that he meant it out of love and kindness, and how was he supposed to have known back when he prepared everything how things would end up being?

That realization went straight out the window when she actually tried the dress on, and found that, while it definitely did fit and was just as beautiful on her as it had been on the rack, there was something to its pale pink color and the darker bow that tied around it that made her stomach seem like it was bigger than it already was. “I really like this, I do,” she said, looking at herself in the mirror as she wore the dress, “but come on, it looks like I’ve got a huge beach ball shoved up in here, and I don’t know if I like that.”

“I think you look much nicer than you pretend to believe. When we go out, anyone who sees you will agree with me, and some may even get jealous of my luck, getting to be with such an attractive woman out on a date.” Coming up behind her to hug her, Alejandro made sure to place both of his hands on Heather’s stomach, much to her disgust. “Tomorrow night shall be one of the best nights of our lives, and you will look like a goddess for it.”

She sighed, shaking her head and looking long and hard at their reflection. “I don’t think goddesses typically look like they’re going to pop if you touch them the wrong way.”

“Stop being so negative and appreciate your appearance. I meant it when I said you will look like a goddess, and I do not want to hear you trying to argue against me.” When she still tried to come up with some response, he silenced her with a kiss, one that he hoped would assure her that he wasn’t just saying things for the sake of hearing his own voice. He truly did believe that she was beautiful, and what she saw as ugly he saw as something to be treasured, as she was carrying inside of her something incredibly precious to both of them.

There was always a catch to when someone believed that an event would go off without a hitch, and there was definitely always a way for things to go wrong when someone involved already believed that things were set up for failure. The next night, when they were going out to their pre-Valentine’s Day dinner, everything seemed to be as perfect as it could possibly be, with them both dressed nicely and their reservation being honored the moment they walked in the restaurant’s front doors, even though there was a several hour wait for seating otherwise.

But from the moment they were taken to their table, things only had one place to go, and that was straight downhill. Because of how busy the place was, it felt like a small eternity before anyone even bothered to come by and get their order started, and when someone did stop by they were treated to an earful from a grouchy, albeit absolutely gorgeous, Heather. She complained that they had taken forever to come take care of them, and that they were just discriminating against them because they looked young and out of place in such a nice restaurant. The member of the wait staff, naturally, tried to fix things as fast as they could, but even their fastest wasn’t enough to please her.

“Would you look at that, this is going terribly,” she said after they had finally gotten their drinks to the table, propping her head up on her hands as she did. “Can’t believe I agreed to come out for this.”

“To be fair, you should not have expected much from someone who makes very little in pay. Maybe if the job was done better, more money would be made.” Alejandro spoke with a laugh, but he wasn’t able to get even a small smile out of his wife. “Okay, you typically find some joy in my speaking ill of employees. What is the matter?”

She looked at him, before biting her lip and shrugging. “Nothing’s the matter. Why would anything be the matter?” she eventually replied. “We’re just going to have a lousy night, that’s all.”

“You are being incredibly negative again, and I would like you to stop. Tonight is a special night, and even if the service we get while here is terrible, it does not mean that being in the company of one another has to suffer the same fate.” He reached for his glass to take a sip of water, but as he did he saw that she was biting her lip again, her face showing the smallest sign of being uncomfortable. “Answer me again, what is the matter?”

“Nothing is. Trust me, if something was wrong, I would tell you.” Giving him a big but obviously fake smile, she sat up straight, putting her arms down underneath the table. “Just stop focusing on me and worry about how you’re going to make this horrible date up to me instead. Because, like I’ve said twice now, nothing is the matter.”

“I would be inclined to believe you on the matter, but you are not one to express any sort of pain through facial expression, and I have caught you doing that once tonight. Either you are playing my care for you like a fiddle, or there is something wrong.” Before he was able to get an answer out of her, she started biting down on her lip once more, closing her eyes as she did. “Heather, please tell me if something is wrong.”

When she opened her eyes, he could tell that they were filling with tears, yet she still shook her head as if there was nothing going on. “I’m sorry, but there’s not anything for me to tell you.” Her voice was a bit shaky, but after she took a deep breath, she seemed to be back to fine. “Let’s just get through this dinner, shall we?”

“We shall, if that is what you think we should do.” By that point, Alejandro was half believing what she was telling him, but at the same time, half believing that she was lying just to let the date he had forced on her happen like he had wanted. But he couldn’t argue with what she was saying, nor could he offer to stop the date right in its tracks. He had to go through with what was happening, whether there was something wrong or not. And while she would never be the one to admit it, for fear of putting him into a panic and ruining his plans, there was something very wrong, something she knew as the one thing she had warned him about when it came to this night.

It would have been in her right to tell him that she had told him so, but he was right in that she did not like showing pain to anyone, especially not him. She couldn’t let his night be ruined just because she couldn’t tolerate something for just a little bit. That was how they ended up spending the next two hours in that restaurant, with the incredibly slow service and the feeling inside of her that things were going very, very wrong. In that time, she had wanted to cry several times, but many more times than that she had found herself trying her hardest to keep from showing to him that she was in incredible pain. But once they were done with the meal and he suggested leaving, sans tip as per the usual, she was more than eager to take him up on the offer. “I wish you had suggested that sooner,” she choked out, as another wave of pain hit her. “Can’t wait to go home.”

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we will not be going home,” he replied, standing up and going to her side to help her up. She looked at him with disgust, but when she saw that his eyes were full of worry, her expression turned more to the helpless one that she had been trying so hard to hide. “You were right all along that this would happen, and I should have believed you.”

“What do you mean?” Her voice was soft as she asked, even though she was fairly certain she knew what answer he was going to give her.

“I mean that you made it clear you wanted to stay for our dinner, even though the time has come for more important things to happen.” The whole time, he had been reading her like a book, but didn’t act on a thing simply because she didn’t seem like she had wanted him to. “And, by the way, next time you try to pull this one on me, I will know from this experience what sorts of faces you make when you are in pain.”

She looked at him with wide eyes as another wave hit her. “That’s nice, but can we get a move on? I don’t exactly think us staying here is going to do us any favors.” He nodded at what she said and they got out of there as quickly as they could, getting to the birthing center that they had chosen for the occasion within an hour of leaving the restaurant.

It was a long rest of the night and morning, but by the time the next afternoon came around there were two completely exhausted parents and one small and absolutely perfect baby boy that they could call theirs.

* * *

“Oh my gosh, what did you guys name the little guy?” As the only person who wasn’t family who cared about the baby, Sierra was given the opportunity to meet him a few days after his birth, and naturally her first question when she saw him was about his name. “I mean, whatever it is, it’s gotta be great.”

“Depends on what your definition of ‘great’ is, I guess,” Heather said with a small shrug, looking down at the baby (even though it had been a few days, she was still having a hard time wrapping her head around the fact that this was _her_ son) that she was holding. “I wouldn’t call it great, but I’m sure someone around here would.”

“What do you mean by that?” Sierra’s voice hinted that she was rather confused by the way that was worded. “Shouldn’t you think it’s great? Isn’t that, like, something both parents should agree on?”

Still looking down at the baby, Heather rolled her eyes. “You would think so, but, you know, stupid family traditions and whatnot.” When asked to explain further, she sighed. “Apparently it’s a thing in Alejandro’s family that the first son shares their first name with the father—which I guess is okay, because this kid looks just like him. But I don’t know, I came up with some names that were a lot better.”

Sierra cupped her face in her hands and squealed, causing the baby to stir a bit and start blinking his green eyes as he began to cry. “Oh, I didn’t mean to wake him up,” she quickly said, as she caught that Heather was glaring at her. “I just got excited about all of this, and I’m super sorry. I think it’s so adorable that he’s got the same name as his big and strong daddy, and I guess I expressed that the wrong way.” Taking a second to note that she was still being glared at, she changed her happy expression to one that looked a bit sorrier for what she had done, then immediately changed it right back to her excited grin when the glaring stopped. “So, like, what should I call him? That’s a big name for a little guy, don’t you think?”

“That’s why he has a second name that he’s going to go by. Again, not my idea. All something that runs in the family.” After moving the crying child so that he was resting more on her chest, and after kissing his head of dark hair a few times, Heather had managed to get him to calm back down enough so that she didn’t seem annoyed as she spoke. “I’m honestly thankful that it worked out that way, because I don’t know how I’d be able to survive in a house where one person hates hearing the only name I’d have to call the other.”

“That’s why I asked what I could call him. Totally figured that he’d have something else to go by that wasn’t—“ Before she was able to finish her sentence, she was interrupted by the sound of the front door opening, and both ladies looked to see who it was. As it should have been, it was Alejandro, but before he was able to say anything to either of them, Sierra was asking him the same question she had been in the process of getting the answer of: “Hey, what do I get to call your cutie of a baby?”

“I had assumed that you would know that long before I got here,” he replied, closing and locking the door before joining the two ladies where they sat. “But I should have also assumed that you would be too enamored with him to get around to asking.”

“Or I just got here like five minutes ago, and maybe was in the middle of finding out when you walked in.” Sierra knew that her saying that wasn’t going to exactly earn her any favors, but she was too excited for the reveal to really care. “Proud momma here told me that he’s got the same name as you, which is great and all, but it’s not what I can call him.”

Before he answered, Alejandro made sure that he had taken the again-sleeping baby from where Heather was holding him, cradling him right in the crook of his arm. Once everything was situated to his liking, he looked to Sierra, a completely peaceful and happy expression on his face. “Yes, you are correct in that we will not be referring to him by his given first name. It is much too long for a child like him, and all alternatives are…” Rather than saying what he thought, he gave a small shudder, before returning to what he was saying. “That is why he shall go by his middle name, Andres, instead.”

If Sierra’s squealing had been loud enough to wake the child before, then the second time she squealed should have easily been able to raise the dead. “That is such a cute name!” she gushed, but when she realized that she had gotten too loud once again, she started backtracking and apologizing for how much noise she had made. The damage had been done, though, and now she had both parents glaring at her with the most disgusted looks they could manage, as they worked to calm the child who was crying once more. “I-I didn’t mean to wake him up, promise. Just got a little carried away with showing how much I love the name he’s got.”

“While I do appreciate that you approve of the name I decided on to give him, you should be more respectful of his sleeping.” Although he may have been in a peaceful state moments before, there was no hiding the fact that Alejandro was not pleased in the slightest that he was holding a screaming child. “Maybe we should have thought more about inviting you over now, and possibly had waited until he does not need to sleep so much. This sort of disruption cannot be good for him.”

“This is the second time she’s done this since she got here,” Heather snapped, trying to grab the baby but being stopped by the way her husband turned and tried to calm him on his own. “I’m thinking if she does it again, she gets to fix what problem she caused.”

“Does that mean I get to hold him?” She knew that it was being suggested as a threat, but there was something about the idea of holding the baby that made Sierra want to squeal again right then. “I’d be up for that if you’d let me!” Her enthusiasm, even though she was being enthusiastic after doing something terrible, was enough to make them look between each other and decide that maybe it was for the best if she did get to hold the baby, before he even stopped crying. And so, after she situated herself properly to hold such a small child, he was put into her arms, still crying and now in the arms of someone who had never exactly held a baby before.

Within seconds, he was silent and just staring up at her with his green eyes, as she looked down at him and nearly started crying herself. “He’s even cuter when I get to look at him like this,” she said, blinking away a tear or two. “I just want to hold him forever. Can I do that, pretty please?”

“Uh, no, don’t need him catching whatever sort of crazy you have,” Heather said in response, looking at how close Sierra’s face was getting to her son’s and really having to resist the urge to swoop in and rescue him from the clutches of insanity. “Back away from him, will you?”

To satisfy the demand, Sierra sat up just a bit, but not nearly enough as she should have. It wasn’t like she really cared, she was too in love with looking at the baby she was holding. “I can’t stop staring at him, oh em gee! He’s like a perfect mini version of his daddy, and that just makes it so fitting that he’s sort of named after him. Sort of. What did you say the name I can call him name was again?”

Alejandro was happy to answer her question, as he saw her needing to be reminded as a sign that she was so enamored with the child in her arms that she had forgotten what she had been told moments before. “His name is Andres, named after one of the few cousins of mine that knew how to be polite to me growing up. It felt like a fitting way to honor his kindness, and only fair as he had promised to bestow my name upon his firstborn.”

“That’s cool. I’m gonna call him—“

“You’re calling him _his name_ , Sierra. It’s kind of why he’s got it.” Finally acting upon her desires to snatch her baby back, Heather actually enjoyed seeing the look of horror on Sierra’s face when she realized she wasn’t holding him anymore. “We didn’t agree on giving him two names for the sake of you giving him some dumb nickname he’d grow up hating.”

“It wasn’t going to be dumb,” Sierra retorted, crossing her arms over her chest. “It was going to be cute. Like him.”

“That is how my brothers tried to convince me that the unsavory nickname they had given me was nice. However, I did not ever once believe them, and I was correct. You are not giving him any sort of name of your own choosing.” There would certainly have been more to the speech Alejandro started giving there, but a knock at the door caught him off guard, and he stopped speaking to go check it. As he went, Sierra started looking slightly excited, which worried Heather, as she had just been being told off. Why would she be excited?

The answer was simple. On the other side of the door were several other people who had been on Total Drama, and when they had been asked why they were there, they said that Sierra had told them that it was baby-viewing day. There wasn’t much to do other than close the door on them and question Sierra as to why she would say such a thing. “Well, I figured it was an open-invite sort of thing, like the baby shower was! So when I was told I could come, I told everyone I was with at the time that they could come too, but after I got here. So it didn’t look weird, yanno?”

“It would’ve been nice if you, hm, passed that idea by us before you said anything to anyone else. I only let you here because you cared. I don’t want all of those weirdos seeing him right now. They’re not allowed.” To drive her point home, Heather wrapped her arms around the little baby in a protective motion. “In fact, I don’t even know if I want you here anymore.”

“Please, I didn’t invite anyone weird! Just the ones I sometimes have lunch with, like my Codykins and Izzy and Gwen. That’s all.” Sierra put on her best pitiful face and realized that if she was going to have any chance in letting her three friends in, she should try to suck up to the person by the door. “Let them in, please! I’m sure, as the big, strong, and protective daddy here, you could beat any of them up if they misbehave.”

“That is a good point. However, as nice as what you say sounds, I cannot allow something to happen that my other half does not want. At that, I do believe you should join your friends outside. Maybe there will be some time in the future where they can see him.” No more discussion was allowed, as every time Sierra tried to argue her case further she was greeted with shushes, and she quickly decided that maybe leaving was best after all.

Once the door was firmly locked and there was no chance of her, or the others, getting in, Alejandro walked back over to be next to Heather, and noticed that she was giving him a bit of an odd look. When asked what the look was for, she shook her head and let her face return to its natural resting position. “Were the people she mentioned really out there? Like, okay, sure I’d let Cody in, he’s not going to do anything wrong, but the other two? Did she really think we’d let a psychotic beast and a weird goth in here?”

“Yes they were all out there, and I am unsure as to why she thought we would let them in. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact we let her in, on multiple occasions. She may have assumed that it meant anyone was allowed.” He shrugged at his own answer, not really sure if that was the case. “But do not dwell on that. They are out there, and that is what matters here.” It was what mattered, and they both knew it, because at that moment, keeping their son safe was what was important, not if anyone got to see him or not.

* * *

The first year of that little boy’s life was one of learning and brand new experiences, both for him and his parents. Granted, that was how it should have been, as he was growing up and starting to discover the world he was a part of (even if the closest he got to “discovering” anything was being able to pull himself to standing by his first birthday), and the two people raising him had never had to take care of a child before. They didn’t know what to expect.

Not even the best books and classes could have taught them that sometimes, babies just liked to scream and cry even though nothing was wrong. There was no way of learning beforehand that the things that young kids liked were not things that this particular little guy liked. And there was no way that they were to know that, under no circumstances, were they supposed to put him in the same vicinity as a teddy bear. Something about the fuzzy and cuddly exterior of a bear made him scream, and that was one of those lessons that had to be learned through experience, not through reading something—even though, after the first time it happened, Alejandro was quick to try and find a reason for it from one of the many things he had read on children during those nights where there was no chance of sleeping.

Of course, the books would say that there was some sort of psychological reason, and that they should devote time to see what was wrong, but really, it was just that the kid did not like the way the bear looked. That was all the explanation there needed to be. But fledgling parents didn’t know not to worry all the small things, and a lot more worry was spent on the situation than needed.

By the time that first year drew to a close, and the romance holiday that marked one long, eventful year with little Andres in their lives came closer, there were so many things that had changed that listing them off would have taken several hours and possibly not even getting them all. Having him around was an adventure, and every moment spent with him was a moment that both Heather and Alejandro would try to treasure forever (minus the moments where he frustrated them, at any rate). But the coming of his first birthday also meant that there needed to be some sort of celebration to mark the moment, and coming up with something to do for that was almost as difficult as completely babyproofing a house to protect the little boy who liked trying to stick his fingers in electrical sockets.

The decision they ended up making wasn’t the best idea in the end, but it was the one that put the least amount of planning on their shoulders. However, getting Sierra involved in anything that involved babies was a terrible idea, and should have been discouraged from the get-go, even if she was able to bring together a lot of people who were willing to bring gifts for the little guy to give him for the occasion. None of those people were necessarily people that the parents wanted around their son, but it was the thought that counted, and if they were giving presents, then it was a bit more acceptable.

The whole “party” thing may have been more memorable if the only good moment, aside from getting to take three cameras off of Sierra’s person to keep her from sharing pictures to the world that they didn’t like, wasn’t one that was set up to be priceless. There was nothing that could top getting to see a cute little boy grinning with cake all over his face and in his hair, his green eyes barely able to be seen through the mess. Not even the amount of screaming that followed when he needed to be cleaned off could ruin that moment.

When the celebrating was over and things were back to the way they were before, the weight of the situation hit and there was some time taken just to sit back and reflect on the fact that this child, this glimmer of light in their lives, had been with them for a year. Or, anyway, that had been the plan, but when thinking about it was mentioned, Heather called it too sappy and not something she wanted to do. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal to her, something that she repeated time and time again, and when pressed to explain why, she shrugged it off.

It wouldn’t be until much later that she’d give her reason, and that was ultimately for the best in the grand scheme of things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh, so I figured that if I'm going to skip posting for a week, I should do so after this chapter. Why? Well, this chapter doesn't leave the world hanging when it ends. So maybe I'll post again next week, maybe I won't. Who knows. I just hope y'all are enjoying this thus far! :D


	3. Cats, Dogs, and Celebrations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adding pets into a household is always a fun time, especially when the animals have silly names or are species that someone doesn't approve of. Plus, two different events are recognized and celebrated. Sort of.

Something that had weighed heavily on Heather’s mind for the longest time was that she had fallen in love and married a guy who had the family history of only having male offspring. As she still very much had the dream of getting to raise a little girl, that didn’t sit well with her, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. There was no way she was going to leave the guy she loved for that reason, and what else was there to be done? This was, of course, ignoring the fact that the only way to try and fulfil that dream was to have another child. At the point they were in their lives, still in their early twenties, there was no need to rush into things. To her, and she was sure Alejandro felt this same way, Andres was all they needed.

It didn’t stop her from dreaming about having a little miniature version of herself to dress up and play with, though. Nor did it stop her from occasionally finding herself putting some of her own hair ties into her son’s hair, just to see what he looked like with little ponytails made out of his thick, dark hair. He seemed to enjoy it, squealing and clapping when he’d be shown his reflection with his hair done, and it helped calm her desires of wanting a little girl around, but whenever she did this she had to make sure that there was absolutely no chance that Alejandro was around to possibly see it. There was something about him seeing his precious little boy with pigtails that set him off in half-Spanish rants about how boys only needed their hair pulled back when it would be in the way, not for looking cute, and rather than subjecting herself to having to listen to such nonsense, Heather chose to do her hairstyling in about as much secrecy as she could.

But when her little model was someone who didn’t understand that he couldn’t go to his dad with a hairbrush and a hair tie and get anywhere, there really wasn’t that much secrecy to be had about things. Or, at least, there wasn’t much that could stay secret about that situation, and because the amount of times that it was revealed that she was still doing what she wasn’t supposed to be just kept going up and up until it was nearly a daily thing, something had to be done about it. Something had to be introduced into the home environment that would give her the chance to force feminine qualities on someone who wasn’t a growing boy.

And that was why, one day after spending most of the afternoon working, Alejandro came home with a cat. A brown and white ball of fluff that he didn’t seem to be happy with having with him at all. Heather, on the other hand, was more than pleased with the gift and took to it immediately, grabbing it from him when she saw it and holding it tightly to her. “You could’ve warned me you were going to bring something home for me,” she said, as she started petting the cat, “but I guess I can forgive you. Cats are pretty great and I’m glad you’ve seen the light about this.” That was in reference to one of their most common arguments, about what sort of pet they should have, where she stood firmly on the side of a cat and he was more for a dog. “Tell me what the occasion is, though. You’re not usually big on spoiling me without reason.”

“I figured that you could use the companionship of something that would not beg for me to style its hair. That way, you are no longer teaching Andres that it is acceptable for him to go around the house with multiple ties in his hair.” At the sound of his name, the little boy cheerfully ran to his dad and began clinging to his leg, which distracted Alejandro for a moment, picking the boy up and holding him much like Heather was holding the cat. “Even though, I must admit that the shelter did not have a large selection in long-haired cats, and so I had to pick a male one.”

“So it’s okay for me to decorate a boy cat, but not our son? Yeah, okay, whatever.” The cat meowed and, in response, she began petting him, her fingers hitting a collar that he wore around his neck. “Oh, what’s this?” she asked, fiddling with it to find the tags on it, and then reading what one of the tags said. “Wait a second, does this say a description of him, or his name? Because that’s a dumb name if it really is his name.”

“I was not going to change it, not when it is the name he has grown up with,” Alejandro replied, giving a slightly smug grin in Heather’s direction. “It may be wordy but it fits him, and therefore it stays.”

She rolled her eyes, returning the collar back to how it had been before she started messing with it. “I’m not calling him Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl. I’ll shorten to…well, something that isn’t that, but I’m not calling him that.”

“Yes you are. It is his name, and it is a fitting name. Therefore, we will do our best to use it when referring to him.” The smile grew a little smugger. “It is, of course, either this or have no cat and nothing to practice your hair styling on but yourself.”

“Nope, we’re keeping him, and I’m shortening this stupid name to Swirl. It’s more fitting anyway, and doesn’t take a minute to say.” Her retort was met with a reminder that nicknames of that sort were not allowed, something she knew dearly as she was told that nearly as often as she was told to stop beautifying Andres. “Whatever. He’s my cat, and I’m calling him what I want to call him. Even if you don’t agree with me, it’s not your decision and, really, I don’t care what you have to say.”

“You should care what I say, because I took the time out of my day to go get him for you, and the least you can do is respect him and his name, much like you respect me with my name. You would not treat him worse than me, would you?” If there was an answer to that, it wasn’t paid attention to, because Andres began squirming and chanting that he wanted down (in what few words he knew, as he was barely a year and a half old), and once he was down he ran over to his mom and reached up at her, not wanting to be picked up but to try and get what she was holding.

“Is this cat good with kids?” Heather asked, watching the little hands that were reaching up at the cat’s tail. “I don’t want this to get ugly if he manages to grab poor little Swirl.”

Alejandro’s smug smile faded as he watched what was happening. “I would not have picked him over the others if he was not suited to be around a child. Trust me, there were cats with much more simple names that I could have chosen, but they would not react kindly to whatever horrors may have happened to them if they came to live with us. Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl there, he will tolerate what will happen to him.” As he had said the cat’s name, the smile came back, just to completely disappear when the cat let out a pained screech as a grubby hand finally got a grasp of his tail. “Or, ahem, he may just do that.”

In the process of his screech, the cat dug his claws straight into the arms that held him, and once she realized that the claws had drawn blood, Heather screamed and threw the cat to the floor—or, rather, threw the cat straight at her son, who still held onto his tail with wonder as to what he was holding. With the force that the animal hit him, he was knocked to sitting on the floor, the cat landing in his lap, and that was the moment that things could have gotten worse, if the cat hadn’t started purring and forgiving the child for holding onto him like he was.

“Tolerate it, huh?” Looking at her arms and the scratches that now covered them, Heather took a deep breath and shook her head. “Looks like the cat you bought for _me_ doesn’t like me very much at all.”

“Or he had just gotten his tail pulled and reacted the only way he knew how,” Alejandro suggested, “because you were holding him and he needed to get away from whatever was hurting him. Although he seems to enjoy being with who was actually hurting him.” True to that, the cat was still purring and looked to be enjoying the rough petting he was being subjected to. “So maybe you are correct, and it is you he does not like. I can only assume that is because you refuse to call him his proper name.”

“Ha, very funny. Pretty sure that has nothing to do with it. I’m going to hope this isn’t because he hates me and more because he was attacked while I was holding him, or else I’m not going to use him for the purpose you intended.” After she finished speaking she walked away to go tend to her scratches, leaving everyone as they were. And when she came back, the scene was mostly the same, the only exception being that Alejandro had sat down next to Andres and the cat, and was talking to the little boy about how one was supposed to treat cats, and that meant no pulling the cat’s tail.

He listened to that rule, mostly. There would still be instances of the cat screeching because his tail was being pulled, but they were not regular occurrences. In fact, the most regular noise that the cat made was purrs, always from when he would find himself sitting on someone’s lap or next to them and in close enough of a proximity to get petted. Even with his goofy name and the fact that he was typically referred to it with the entire thing (this was because the only person who didn’t simply refer to him as “the cat” was Alejandro), he was a perfect pet for them to have around.

Until the dog came into their lives, anyway.

Much like it had been with the introduction of Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl into their family, the dog was very much a surprise that Alejandro brought home with him one day. Unlike the cat, though, this surprise was not one that was accepted and forgiven quickly, if only because he didn’t make this one as obvious as the cat. He made sure to go out and purchase the little puppy when he knew that no one would be home when he brought it to the house, so that he had time to figure out how to explain his decision to his wife when she came back. Or, that was what he had thought he was going to do, but the truth was that there was no way he could explain to Heather why he had gotten a dog without so much as mentioning to her beforehand without her getting angry with him.

There was a little glimmer of hope when she came home, dragging with her a screaming two-year-old that was going on about not getting something at the store, and she didn’t pay any notice to the presence of a dog carrier near the doorway. But that hope was quickly dashed when her cat came tearing out of whatever room he was resting in, with a black blur following behind. “Whoa, what in the world is terrorizing the cat, and why is it in the house?” she asked loudly, to be heard through walls and over the whining child she was still holding on to. “ _Some_ one better answer that before I kick whatever it is out of here.”

Before she could get the chance to chase it down and do what she threatened, Alejandro came into the room, whistled for the animal to come to him, and when it didn’t, he shook his head and laughed. “That, _mi amor_ , is a dog. More specifically, it is our dog.”

“I didn’t agree to a dog. Cat, yes, because cats are great, but no dogs. Dogs eat cats for lunch. You’re going to get rid of it, or I’ll do it for you.” The cat came running back into the room, the dog still following, and Heather put a stop to the chasing by picking the cat up and handing him to Andres, who stopped his whining when he realized that he was getting to play with the cat. “I’m not very happy about this.”

“That was expected, which is why you were not informed that I was going to purchase her until after it was done. It is only fair that we each have the pet we want, rather than you have one while I do not.” Whistling again, this time with the dog bounding to him, Alejandro smiled down at the little black and brown creature that flopped down at his feet. “I think you will grow to appreciate her as much as I already have.”

“Her? Are you telling me that you get to have a female pet? That’s so not fair.” She took a few angry breaths, before dropping the appearance of being incredibly angered by what was happening. “Okay, guess it’s not so bad. This place did need another girl in it, and I guess I can forgive that she came in the form of a dog. Let me guess, though, her name’s something just as dumb as Swirl’s is, huh?”

“No, as I named her, I can assure you that I took only the best name from our combined name list. We shall call her Sofia,” he said, earning a groan from Heather, before continuing with, “and she will be a wonderful addition to our family.”

A second groan, louder than the first, was the response to that. “You think it’s funny to do things like this, don’t you? That list was built for whenever we got past whatever stupid problem your family has with having girls, and you used it to name a dog!” By the time she was done speaking, her voice was much higher than it had started, and all that had done was make Alejandro tune out her silly argument, as well as call the dog’s attention to her. Which meant that she was soon having little puppy paws clawing at her legs, and her instinct was to kick the dog away. “Nope. Not doing this. She goes.”

“If she goes, then your dear Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl goes with her. It is unfair if one of us gets a pet while the other does not, and I can assure you that Sofia will be no sort of problem once she is trained and a bit more grown. Trust me that this will all work out.” There was a chuckle in between two of his sentences that she didn’t notice, too busy looking at the dog and trying to keep her away to even care. “So, what do you say? She is staying here, correct?”

“I don’t really have a place to argue with you, I guess, since I do have a cat and all. It’s only fair. Completely ridiculous, but fair.” Heather looked over to where her cat was, still being held and petted by Andres, and as she looked she saw the little boy looking to her. “Oh, what do you want? Did he scratch you or something?”

The child shook his head, setting the cat down before he could actually be scratched. Then, after watching the cat run off, once again with the dog following, he dropped to the floor where he stood, getting on his hands and knees and starting to crawl around like an animal, meowing and barking intermittently. There was no explaining of what he was doing, or why he was doing it, but it eased the tensions that had come up over the pets, because it was clear he liked both animals. And if he could accept them both, then his parents were going to have to do the same, or risk disappointing him.

It was an acceptance that was just understood between them and never really spoken of as a matter that needed to be dealt with. There was no getting rid of either pet, even when the dog turned out to be a lot bigger of a hassle than anyone, especially Heather, could have expected. That was mostly because it was never mentioned what type of dog Sofia was, but it became very painfully obvious when she started growing like a weed, going from cute puppy to almost horse sized in the time between when she was purchased—a few weeks after the Valentine’s season—and when Christmas rolled around. The little excitable pup who had found joy in chasing the cat around the house had turned into a giant, gentle, and loving companion to said cat, even if she towered over him. She was also easily the greatest thing to have ever happened in Andres’ life up to that point, as he would hang around the dog as often as possible, playing with her more than he would any toy.

It was quite a sight to behold, a not-even-fully grown dog being taller than her child companion, but she was so gentle that there was nothing to worry about. Which, really, was for the best, as the adults had far more important things to be worrying about that didn’t involve how safe the dog was with the kid who loved her so much. They had to focus on, partially, anyway, what to get said kid for Christmas. But they were looking out at the bigger picture a lot more than that one narrow frame, and the bigger picture was fairly simple to comprehend: at any point from the holiday on, someone new would be joining the fray that was this little family, and that had to be a primary focus.

Even if making sure that Andres had a great Christmas was a top priority as well. For most of the month before the holiday he had done nothing but point out things he wanted, regardless of if they were things he would actually enjoy or if they were something he didn’t quite understand. Or, as happened on several occasions when he and his parents would be at the store and he’d say he wanted something, he would find something meant for infants and say he wanted it, just so that he could give it to his baby brother whenever possible.

At the _brother_ part of those wishes, no matter how cute they were, Heather would always roll her eyes and give dirty looks at Alejandro, who would always smugly smile right back at her. Having a second child, while it wasn’t something they had intended for, was yet another chance for her to have that little girl she had wanted, but it simply was not meant to be, and that point was one he liked to make sure he rubbed in a bit. When the topic of the second baby’s gender would be brought up when they were alone, he would make sure to remind her that he had told her that it was going to be that way, and she would just have to accept it.

Accepting that her dream may never come true was not anything she wanted to do, but she knew she had to accept that, at least for the moment, it wasn’t what was meant to be. And that meant having to go through an abridged version of preparations that they had gone through not quite three years before—a fact that, when she thought about it, honestly didn’t feel real in the slightest. To her, it didn’t seem like almost three years had passed, but when she looked at Andres and saw how big he was (not to mention how much he looked just like his dad), it felt all too real.

And the clock was ticking closer and closer to when there’d be another baby in the house, with the last baby still around and still dependent on his parents, even if he was big and capable of doing so many things on his own. Life was going to change for them all, and it really was just a matter of time. But before that change would happen, there was a very special holiday for them to celebrate together, the last Christmas for them where there would be only one kid opening presents.

It was an early morning, with two of the three people in the house being far too excited to open presents to sleep in late, much to the disgust of the third person. “I don’t understand why you’re forcing me to be awake this early,” Heather grumbled as she slowly pulled herself out of bed to the sound of Alejandro tapping his fingers on the door. “You could easily put this off until later. Don’t you value your beauty sleep?”

“I know you are aware that beauty sleep is one of the things we will not need to be worrying about again for a long time. Besides, it is not like it would do much for you anyway, with how stunning you look naturally.” It was an attempt to get her to accept the fact that she was going to be up for presents, but with the way she glared at him for it, he realized that it came off as trying to sound like he was kissing up to her. “I hope I did not offend there. You know how much I love you.”

“Whatever. Can’t believe you’re making me do this, on one of the last mornings we’ll get to sleep in for the next year.” That was when she showed him a rude hand gesture, causing him to laugh, but his laughter was not the reaction she had wanted. “Ugh, you act like you’ve completely forgotten how bad those first weeks with a new baby are. We’re going to be ugly zombies around here. Just let me sleep for a bit longer, okay?”

“I would allow it, but there is a small problem.” Alejandro held up two fingers placed very close together. “That being, of course, that Andres is already out with the presents, and you know how he can get sometimes when he wants something and it is in his grasp. We need to make sure he does not open his gifts without us there.”

The glare softened and Heather sighed. “Okay, fine, point taken. But as soon as he’s opened everything I am going right back to bed.” She was told that was an acceptable course of action, as long as she tried to seem at least somewhat happy during the event, and her reaction to that was to quite literally shove Alejandro into the wall as she walked past him, not caring in the slightest that he needed to get to the same place she was going.

It didn’t matter in the end, though, because by the time they got there together (he couldn’t help it that she was so slow and easy to catch up to), they were greeted with a mess of paper that was ripped to shreds and thrown all over the room. In the middle of the mess was not the child that would logically be there, but Sofia the dog and her feline companion Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl, both looking like they had just won the free toy lottery or something similar. “Oh, looks like your dumb dog ruined this fun moment in our lives.” Grumbling once more, Heather’s glare returned in full force as she looked around at the scene before turning her head so she was staring right into Alejandro’s eyes. “Bet you didn’t expect this would happen, huh?”

“I would not jump to the conclusion of it being Sofia’s fault so quickly when there are two pets present,” he replied, putting his hand under her chin and turning her head back to the animals. “We should be blaming them both, not just the one I care for.”

“No, see, we know that Swirl didn’t do it. He handled himself perfectly last year. It’s that damn dog that got into everything, and I can’t believe you let this happen.” She grabbed his wrist and pulled his hand off of her, before she went and sat down in the closest chair to the scene of the crime. “I’m waiting for you to admit your dog did it. We’re not going anywhere until you tell me that it’s her fault.”

“Then it seems we will be going nowhere for a long time, because she is not solely responsible for this incident. Just because you do not like her does not mean you get to blame her for everything.” Rather than trying to make anything about the situation better, he simply called for the dog and had her stand beside him, so he could pet her head and watch her wag her long tail, knocking paper around with it. “Sofia is a well-behaved dog, and you know this.”

At the sound of her name, the dog gave a soft bark, even though it was still loud enough to get the cat to stand up and walk out of the room, clearly not wanting anything more to do with the situation. As his fluffy tail rounded the corner out, a big box started making its way in, being pushed into the room by someone unseen. It wasn’t until the box was moving paper out of its way that Andres popped up from the other side of it, his green eyes shining with excitement that was shared in his big smile. “Oh look, maybe the kiddo would know what’s going on here. Did the dog open all your presents, Andres?” Heather asked, leaning forward a bit in her chair to get just a smidge closer to the boy. “Or did the cat?”

He shook his head and pointed to himself. “Not cat, not dog! Me!” Looking to his parents to see what he figured would be pride, he saw them both look surprised, and due to that his smile disappeared, replaced with a sad look. “Not okay?” When they both shook their heads at him, his lower lip jutted out and he started tearing up. “Not okay…but good! Got,” he hit the box a couple of times, “for baby bro’er!”

To check the validity of the statement, Alejandro looked inside of the box and found that the child had indeed opened everything that was intended for his not-yet-born younger brother and put all in one place. “And what did you do with everything that was meant for you? We can tell that every gift was opened, not just the ones in here.”

“Uh, in room!” Sniffling from his little bit of crying, Andres ran out of their sight for a moment, the dog following him out, and he came back with his arms full of things that were clearly for him. “See, I have, I have!”

“He’s so proud of himself. It’s a shame we’re going to punish him for ruining the one reason you forced me to be awake and out of bed.” Of all the things Heather expected in response to her statement, what she got came as a complete surprise: a shrug of the shoulders and a look that told her that she wasn’t quite right. “Come on, he opened all the presents. We’ve got to tell him that’s not okay.”

“There are ways to do that which do not require punishment, and you act as if he did it out of greed. He did this to set everything aside for someone he cares about very much, and that is an act that should be praised. Even if he did ruin the fun and excitement of this morning for us.” And so, after explaining that what he did, even if it was nice, was bad, they tried to salvage the opening of the presents, which amounted in covering what Andres already knew as his own in ripped paper and having him uncover it and look surprised. It wasn’t the same as him not knowing what was there, but it worked.

It was ultimately all okay, as the best gift they could have gotten for the holiday came a few days later, a perfectly healthy baby boy that made his screaming entrance into the world a handful of hours before the beginning of the new year.

* * *

For a few weeks, everything was difficult. Adjusting to not just having to care for a baby but an older child as well was a hard change, but after those first few weeks, things grew to get easier, especially since they already knew how to properly raise a baby. There were very few surprises with the second child, as he was just as easy to take care of as his brother had been nearly three years beforehand.

However, there was one distinct difference in the two, something that both parents learned all too well; while Andres had always preferred to be held by his mom, little baby Sergio (named for another one of Alejandro’s cousins he had grown up with) definitely did not like it when he was being held by his mom for more than a few minutes. But a lot of the time, she was the only option and so he cried and cried for what felt like hours, until his dad would be around to carry him to his little heart’s content.

Did it feel weird to Heather that she wasn’t getting to bond as well with her second son as she had her first? She would laugh it off and say that it didn’t bother her in the slightest, but she would feel pangs of sadness when she’d watch the baby laughing and having fun with Alejandro, when she knew that if she were trying to play little baby games with him, all he would do was cry. To keep her mind off the fact that she wasn’t the desired parent to him, she would spend a lot of time with Andres, making sure he didn’t get too jealous that he wasn’t the only kid in the house anymore. While he was definitely feeling the lack of attention, he did still very much like getting to spend time with his mom, even if she was spending it with him because she wasn’t wanted elsewhere.

It seemed like things were working themselves out for a while, but as life tended to do, when a happy rhythm was found, something was thrown in that set it off-balance once more. In this case, it was a month and a half before Sergio’s first birthday, after nearly a year of new experiences and ways of managing his love of one parent over the other, when a huge wrench was thrown into everything. Or, at least, that was how the news was presented to friends and family alike, with the only people knowing that what was happening was intentional being the two people involved in the decision.

No one else needed to know that one of them had gotten desperate about wanting a daughter to love and to raise, and that they had decided to give it a shot, even though the other made sure to state the reminder that it wasn’t going to happen several times. There was no point in not trying, though, even if it was definitely not the best timing and was going to leave them with oddly staggered ages of their kids. Just like had been warned, even with the idea of “third time’s the charm” in their minds and hearts, there was no changing fate at all. That meant, joining two older brothers, there would be a third little boy being added to the mix.

The kicker to that news, probably the worst part of it all, was that he was supposed to be born right around the same time as a very important date that wasn’t a birthday. Forgetting one’s wedding anniversary was somewhat of a crime, wasn’t it? And how were they to celebrate the day if there was possibly going to be a baby born at the same time? Well, if it wasn’t Alejandro planning things, there would probably have been some moving around of celebrations, but he wasn’t going to let a possibility ruin the moment of celebrating their fifth year together. (He was reminded a time or two about the last time he had pushed through with planning a night out, that early Valentine’s dinner that had taken place four years beforehand, but that did not deter him.)

As the day drew closer, he felt like he had made the right decision, although Heather was still completely convinced that he had set up the same exact sort of disaster as the last time. There was no way of knowing which one of them was going to be right until the night was over, though—and to make things more interesting, they set up a bet between them over who got to pick the name of the baby, all depending on who was right about if the night was going to be ruined or not. Finally, when the day was upon them, neither of them was willing to move an inch about their stance on the matter, even if it was far too late for them to change the course of events, and it made for an interesting morning and early afternoon of preparing for what may come.

One of the preparations involved needing someone to watch the kids, who were definitely far too young to be left on their own. That was going to be something new, as they had never once left the two young boys in the care of anyone who wasn’t family before, and on this bright and lovely late spring day, that fact was going to be rendered old news. Who they were to pick to have watch the boys was a battle they fought against each other for weeks, but the answer was ultimately decided when there was a knock at the front door and not just one, but two babysitters came into the house for the job.

It was going to be a great night for at least someone, be it the parents out on their date, or the boys back at home being watched by the slightly unlikely duo of Sierra and Cody.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I'm pretty sure everyone knows where this is going. Sierra's going to kidnap the kids and...wait, no, that's not where this is going. Although where it is going is slightly obvious based on what's already happened. Stay tuned and find out what goes down next time! :D


	4. Babying Little Boys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Babysitting happens, and with Cody and Sierra being the ones watching the kids, there's always a chance that something weird and completely unexpected will happen. Or that even weirder and more unexpected things will follow.

There wasn’t any need for the boys to be introduced to their babysitters, as one of them had met them before and remembered them well, and the other was too little to understand who they were. That made for the rest of the preparations for the night to go by quickly, and the goodbyes from parents to sons to be less tearful than they would have been if these were complete strangers. The only snag in the speediness was when Sierra had to be asked for all of her cameras off of her body before she could be left alone with the children, but that was because she liked to play difficult when it came to getting every last device.

“I should have known that was going to happen,” she admitted as soon as the front door was closed and locked after Alejandro and Heather had made their leave. “He always gets me, which I totally understand why he does it, but come on, he knows I’m not going to post pictures of his little ones without permission. He could at least let me take pictures.”

“You know you’re lucky that you’re even allowed in this house,” Cody said in response to her comment. “The way you’re so obsessed with everything, I’m surprised they let you near their kids without someone watching you.” Then he laughed, realizing what he had just said. “No, wait, they do have someone watching you. Me. Because they know if you try and do anything and I’m around, I won’t be afraid to get you taken care of.”

Sierra sniffled, gaining the attention of not just one of the two kids but a dog as well. “You wouldn’t dare do that, would you? I mean, I help you out! I pay half your bills! I give you a place to stay! You wouldn’t have me locked up!” Where her voice started hitting higher tones, she got the dog barking at her, something that got her to drop her tone back to normal really quickly. “Whoops, sorry there Sofia. Didn’t mean to startle you or something.”

“You talked to the dog.” His voice was quiet, as he wasn’t big on talking to anyone, let alone people he only remembered from his last birthday party, but Andres was looking straight at Sierra when he spoke. “She likes when I talk to her.”

“Does she? Oh, that’s cool! I didn’t know you did that!” Sierra approached the bigger of the two kids, sitting down next to him on the floor. “What else does she like?”

“Games,” he replied, shifting his stare from her to where the dog was circling to lay down. “And the cat. And me.” His face lit up in a smile when he mentioned himself, looking back to Sierra with those shining green eyes of his. “She likes lots of stuff.”

“I bet you’d be able to show me everything she likes, huh? Or maybe you could tell me at some point tonight, I don’t know. It’s not like we don’t have a long time for us to get to know each other better, and for you to tell me all sorts of things about your precious dog.” Reaching to ruffle the boy’s hair, Sierra was smiling almost as big as he was. “You’re going to make tonight the greatest night ever, aren’t you?”

He gave a muffled response, as he was laughing at the way her fingers tousled his dark hair and couldn’t form the words he wanted. At about that same time, Cody had started looking at the dog, trying to think of something that came to mind when he saw her. “Wait a second, what did you say her name was?” he asked Sierra. “Did you call her the right name, or the wrong one?”

“Obviously the right one,” she replied, pulling her hand away from the child’s head. “I don’t even remember what it was that Heather kept calling her last time we were here. All I know is that we were told repeatedly that her name is Sofia. And so that’s what I called her.”

“Just checking. Pretty sure that if you called her whatever that other name was, Alejandro would know it and he’s not even here.” That was when Cody also took a seat, but his place of choice was closer to the other child who was present, except unlike his older brother, he was mostly asleep and not really aware that the person sitting next to him wasn’t one of his parents. “Hey, do you think that we’re going to have it easy tonight? I mean, Andres is always so good whenever we see him, and the little one’s already trying to sleep.”

“I am a good boy,” Andres said, his voice barely above a whisper as he spoke. “And I will be good now, ‘cuz I like being good.”

“I think that answers your question, Codykins. As long as it stays like this all night, it’s going to be like us being at our place. Well, minus my computer and plus two kids, I guess.” Sierra laughed, before getting oddly serious when she spoke again. “I just can’t believe that this is real. Can you?”

Cody looked at Sierra with a questioning glance. “Which part? The part where you’re actually allowed in this house with only me around, or the part where we’re watching these kids on our own?” She laughed a bit more and told him the second choice, and he sighed, mentally wiping his brow for narrowly having to escape having to answer the first one. “I, uh, don’t really know how I wouldn’t be able to believe this. We’re decent people, and we have done nothing but be friendly with their parents, so it makes sense to me that we’re here watching these guys.”

“That wasn’t exactly what I was meaning, but okay.” Taking a deep breath to curb her laughter, Sierra tried to make herself serious once more but couldn’t quite do it. “I mean, like, I can’t believe that these kids exist.”

“Oh, that’s where you were going with that. It’s a bit weird to think that people we competed against for a million dollars have kids while we’re still young and doing nothing with our lives, but it’s their decision.” Turning his focus to the child next to him, Cody was a bit surprised when he saw that in the moments he had been looking away, little Sergio had decided that he didn’t want to sleep after all, and he was now staring back at Cody with a confused look. And when it clicked in his head that he wasn’t in the same house as his dad, there were tears to be shed, but until that realization was met there was time for conversations to go on. “A decision that, honestly, they could have thought out a bit more.”

“I think it’s super cool that they’re having these kids while they’re still young. Means that they’ll be able to do cool things with them. Or just have a million babies.” Sierra shrugged at her own train of thought as the waterworks began over where Cody sat, and since he was the adult male present it was put on him to calm things down. The view of watching scrawny string-bean Cody try and get a child used to a well-built and muscular man to stop crying was fairly hilarious, and Sierra did find herself giggling at the sight. Several times, at that. But what she took from it beyond the hilarity of the situation was something that she made sure to mention when there was less crying happening: “I think I want _us_ to have a million babies too. Just because we’re totally pros at taking care of them.”

This statement was, of course, said right after Cody had somehow managed to keep a kid from kicking him in the face, elbowing him in the crotch, and overall stop crying. “One, we aren’t together, and we’re never going to be. Two, even if we were together, I don’t think I’d do well raising kids. And three, if we were together and did have kids, I definitely don’t think we’d get anywhere close to a million. I don’t even think we’d get this far. And no, I don’t want to try. Ever.”

“But come on, we would make the cutest babies ever!” No sooner did she say that did it hit Sierra that maybe she shouldn’t have said it in earshot of a child who was most definitely raised being told that he was the cutest kid on the planet. “Or, um, almost as cute as these guys, probably.”

“My mommy says I’m cute.” Andres was speaking louder than he had before, to not just let Sierra know what he was saying but Cody as well. “But my daddy says no. Boys are not cute.” There was a tone of sadness in the last two sentences, which drove Sierra to grab the boy in a hug and pull him up onto her lap. “I want to be cute. But I have’ta listen to my daddy.”

While he hadn’t heard the word the first time it was said, Sergio definitely heard the last word his brother used and started crying when he heard it, restarting the whole process of getting him to calm down. This time he was easier to placate, but not because of anything that the person comforting him did; within five seconds of starting to cry, the cat had come in and hopped right up into the equation, curling up right beside the crying child and purring until things got better. “I wasn’t aware that cats were miracle workers,” Cody remarked, watching the scene unfold next to him. “Either that, or the cat was a distraction that I didn’t know I needed.”

Just like that, Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl ceased purring, looking up at Cody and hissing before getting up and walking away. “I guess he didn’t like being classified as a ‘distraction’,” Sierra said with a laugh, as the crying started up once more. But rather than just making fun of the situation, she decided she was going to do something to try and make things better, and that meant leaving her spot next to the well-behaved child and going over to where Cody was being beat on, once again, by the crying Sergio. “Okay, let me get a crack at getting him quiet,” she said, picking up the child before he had a chance to hit Cody in any painful manner, “because what kind of unofficial auntie to these boys would I be if I didn’t try and help out a bit?”

Her idea of helping was to hold the kid up in the air above her head, letting him scream and kick where no one would be getting hurt by it. While it didn’t do anything in terms of calming him down right away, after a few minutes of him being up there he at least wasn’t crying as much. “You going to explain why you’re Lion King-ing him?” Cody asked, chuckling as he did. “Did someone tell you that kids liked that?”

“No, it just seemed fun,” Sierra replied, looking up at the small feet dangling down at her. “And it got him to sorta stop, so I’d say it was a good idea.”

Watching what was happening with his little brother gave Andres an idea of his own. He looked for where the cat had walked off to, which was to curl up next to the dog, and as quickly as he could, he grabbed the cat and put him up in the air much like Sierra was holding Sergio up. But the cat didn’t like it nearly as much as the kid did, and there was a lot of meowing and clawing at nothing that took place—which wouldn’t have been a problem, if it didn’t get the dog’s attention. And even with the cat as high as Andres could hold him, Sofia’s head was about level with the cat’s when she came up to investigate what was happening to her furry partner in crime.

It was one of those scenes that Cody was equal parts surprised to see happening and wanting to be part of, but not being part of it meant he got to spectate everything as it happened. The only problem was that explaining what, exactly, was happening was not something he was sure he’d be able to do accurately, and taking a photo for proof was out of the question. “Do you think they’d be too mad if I took a picture of this, just to show them what you guys did?” Reaching for his phone, Cody was prepared for either a positive or a negative answer, because either way having his phone not in his pocket was a good plan.

“I don’t think so, Codykins. You know how they are, all super protective of letting people know what these cuties look like.” Before he could even try and take the picture anyway (which, he wasn’t going to, but that was the action Sierra herself would have taken), she was bringing Sergio back down to cradling-in-arms level, and next to her Andres did the same with the cat. “And that means no pictures. Didn’t you see that Alejandro wouldn’t even leave until he had all my cameras?”

“I saw, don’t worry. Was just asking because I figured they’d like to know we could handle watching their boys for them.” Cody fiddled with his phone a bit as he spoke, checking the time and seeing that, for as long as it felt they had been there already, it had been barely twenty minutes, and they were going to be there for several hours. He sighed when he saw that, putting his phone back into its sleep mode and shaking his head. “Hopefully nothing worse than a little crying happens tonight. We can at least handle that.”

“Don’t be so darn negative! We’ve got this all under control, and there’s nothing that could ruin that!” To make her eat those words right after she said them, Sierra was treated to the lovely surprise of the child she was holding deciding that right then was a perfect time to throw up on himself. She saw it and, her eyes widening in horror, gagged a bit. “Okay, nope, changed my mind. _This_ could ruin that.”

As neither of them were trained in the way of cleaning up a child, especially one that didn’t seem to like them to begin with, it was a lot longer of an ordeal than it had needed to be. Thankfully, to assist them with finding replacement clothes and whatnot, there was a little helper around who proved to be vital to getting things taken care of without too much trouble. In return for his help, once his brother was nice and clean, and falling back asleep like he had been before, all Andres asked for was to be allowed to play with Sierra’s hair, and for her to play with his. It seemed like a strange request—and, really, it was—but when he explained himself, there was no way that she could deny him it. “Mommy lets me touch her hair,” he said, his voice quiet to make absolute sure he wasn’t heard by his brother. “But I’m not s’posed to. Daddy says so.”

“He says a lot of things, but you know what you should do when he says them?” Sierra was undoing her hair so that the child could play with it to his content, and so she didn’t quite notice the slight head-tilt he was giving her, wanting her to explain what she meant. That was okay, though, because she answered her own question at the same time she was shaking her head to let her hair hang loose and free. “You should tell him that he should stop being such a jerk. He’s not being very nice if he’s telling you what you can’t do.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s the entire point of being a parent,” Cody inputted, earning himself a bit of a scoff from Sierra. “No, being serious here. You can’t tell a kid to tell his dad to not be a jerk, even if the guy is one of the biggest jerks on the planet. There’s some things that parents are just going to do, and we have to tell the kid to respect that, not try and fight it.”

“So you want me to let him think that it’s normal for kids to not get to follow their interests? That’s so uncool! I mean, I’m down for following some of the rules, but not all of them. And this is one rule I’m not following. He’s allowed to play with my hair whenever I’m around, and that’s that.” A smile on her lips, Sierra soon found that letting a four-year-old play with her hair was one of the dumber decisions she had ever made in her life, as he was tugging it and trying to style it in ways that were resulting in knots, but he seemed so cheerful and out of his quiet shell when he was doing it. She couldn’t deny him that sort of fun.

After a good half-hour of that (which was noted by Cody as he kept checking his phone, dreading that something was going to happen), the kid grew bored of Sierra’s hair and politely asked her if she would do something with his instead. If she hadn’t been able to deny him the fun of playing with her hair, there was no way she was going to turn down his request. There wasn’t much she could do with the dark, shaggy hair on his head except put it into small bunches, but it was enough to get him laughing and enjoying the moment. When he laughed, it was enough to get Sierra laughing, and there was something about hearing her snort-laugh alongside the gleeful and pure laughter of a child that made Cody smile.

Even if the moment was ruined by his phone that he had been fidgeting with starting to ring, alerting them to an event that, by all means should have been expected. There wasn’t much they could do about it, except realize that they weren’t just babysitting for a few hours like they had been told, but were instead going to be in it for the overnight, to make sure that in the morning after the dust had settled, the kids were alive and able to go visit their parents as well as their new baby brother.

* * *

No matter how things ended up, life in that house over the following few months was a giant mess as it happened. Living in a home with one child that knew the basics of how to do things, one child who was slowly starting to learn how to do anything that wasn’t be obnoxious or run away from everyone, and one baby who definitely couldn’t do anything was a challenge in itself, but somehow they all managed. Even if managing meant that, at times, there was nothing but animosity between the two adults in charge. How else were they supposed to handle the life that they had chosen for themselves, aside from be rude and hateful to one another? There were many other ways, sure, but rude was just the way that they preferred.

But while one of them could let the demeaning comments thrown at him roll off his shoulders, it wasn’t quite as easy for the other to do so, mostly because the way they insulted each other was so different. While she was great at shooting him nasty looks and saying things that she didn’t mean, he wasn’t as fond of telling her lies to get back at her. In fact, he made sure that every single thing he said to her when they’d be bickering would dig at her, get under her skin, and make her rethink their entire situation.

It was one thing for them to go at each other and then laugh it off, even if the insults stung a bit. It was a completely different thing when he’d say something and then leave for the day, leaving her alone with three kids to dwell on what he had brought up. Some days, the sight of those kids would put Heather in tears, because she knew that _they_ were the reason that everything was going as it was. If it weren’t for them existing, there would be nothing that would keep Alejandro away all the time, because the only reason he had so much as bothered actually trying to make himself into a working man was to be able to say he was supporting his family. Which there was no denying that he was doing that, as they were doing much more than simply surviving with what they had.

But at what cost? He seemed more interested in making sure that the boys all had what they needed than he did making sure she was happy. And was she happy? It depended on the day and what sort of argument they had to start, but most of the time she was right in a neutral spot. She loved her sons (even if there was still that desire inside of her to add a daughter to the mix, despite how terrible of an idea it might actually be), and she was fairly certain she still loved the man she had married (even if he was able to hurt her with his fighting words), but she hated herself more than she could ever love someone else.

It was a form of hatred that was thrust upon her from others, at that; sure, being teased about this-or-that was hurtful, but at the end of the day Heather knew that whatever bickering there was between her and Alejandro, it wasn’t serious. They knew that they had gotten themselves into this mess, and it was hard to handle but they were doing it, and if getting frustrations out on each other through the use of arguing was how they were going to handle it, so be it. It didn’t help at all that he’d criticize her for things out of her control, or, at least, things that he was just as responsible for as she was.

There was one day in particular that things got worse than usual, although there was no real reason for that being the case. The day started the same, with an early wake-up call courtesy of three kids who all wanted something: Andres needed to make sure that he’d be getting to his little school thing on time, Sergio was just done with sleeping and needed one of his parents to get him ready for his day, and baby Ryden just spent most of his time crying for attention. But with only two adults and three kids who needed things, someone had to do two things at once, and that was where all the troubles found their root cause. “You know, taking care of this would be easier if you were willing to help more,” Alejandro said, realizing that he was going to, as usual, be the one who handled most of the issues. “Or, possibly, it would be easier if you chose to not push everything off on me.”

“Oh, whatever. You and I both know that if I try to do anything, they’ll just be more upset. Can’t help it that they’re spoiled into loving you more.” To try and keep there from being any more arguing on the matter, much like she did every morning, Heather simply covered her face with a pillow and hoped he’d take the hint and walk away. Like usual, he didn’t, uncovering her and giving her a stern look that she rolled her eyes at. “Okay, fine, I’ll do something. But I’m not getting cried on this early in the day. That’s what I get when you’re not here.”

“You act like you want to be the one who makes the money in this family, by the way that sounded. Is that what you want?” His look maintained its sternness, even as she got herself out of bed and prepared herself for what was coming. “I can tell you that it certainly is not what you want, judging by the way you look.”

All the effort she was putting into getting ready came to a grinding halt. “What was that?” she asked, through gritted teeth. “Repeat yourself, now.”

“There is no reason for me to repeat myself, _mi amor_ , especially since you already know what I said. If you were not content with what you do every day, I am positive that you would have made some sort of effort to make yourself more presentable.” She turned to look at him, her eyes narrowed into an icy-cold glare. “Do not look so displeased with what I said. You and I both know I am speaking the truth.”

“Even if it was the truth, which it wasn’t, I don’t think I need you trying to police my appearance, thank you very much.” At that, she didn’t speak to him again until after everything was taken care of with the children, and even then, all she said to him was that she hoped he’d have a decent day off at work. He did try to apologize, like he did every time he’d make comments of the sort, but she wanted nothing of it, and once he was gone she was breaking down into tears that she had made sure to keep hidden from him.

It wasn’t her fault that having three kids had done her body no favors, and she was done with hearing him go off on her about how she didn’t look presentable. He was just being completely unrealistic with the idea that she should still look like she had when they met—even though she would have loved to have been able to do just that. But the thing with having children was that once it happened, there was no erasing the damage they’d done, no matter how much anyone would say otherwise. If there was a way for her to get back to her absolutely tiny size from back when they had first gotten married, she would have done it in a heartbeat, but that was impossible and she was just going to have to embrace what she had.

He’d have to learn to embrace it too, and that was going to be a challenge that would take a lot of time and effort to succeed with. Was that worth it? Did he really need to accept the fact that his family’s stupid “curse” combined with her strong desire to have a female child was the reason that she looked the way she did? Or did he just need to realize that he didn’t have a say in how she looked, and that his mean comments on the matter were enough to drive her to crying? Either way, something had to change, and that something was not going to be the impossible. There was no chance at all that she’d fully get rid of her new curves or the marks etched into her skin, and he would have to understand that, just like she had.

And in accepting that these physical flaws were now a permanent part of herself, the realization hit Heather that the only person who really needed to accept these things was indeed herself. If Alejandro wanted to have a problem with it (which he clearly did have), she was just going to have to tell him that he needed to realize that she had earned what she looked like by having three of _his_ kids, and if he was still going to have a problem, then she would just leave. No sooner did she think about the mere possibility of leaving did she start to question why she hadn’t thought of that sooner. It was a good way out, if only even for a little bit, and it would teach him to not dig at her and her insecurities.

But then the reality of the situation was driven home with the silence-breaking screaming of a lonely child, because hearing that scream reminded her that she couldn’t just leave, no matter how much doing so would teach Alejandro a thing or two about appreciating her for everything she was. There was something comforting in hearing the sound of a child in distress, though, and that was that it meant that at least someone wanted her around as she was. Sure, it also meant that she had to do something other than sit and feel sorry for herself, but maybe actually taking part in her parenting duties would be of help to turning her thoughts from the negative to the positive. She collected herself the best she could and went to see what the damage was, only to find that the screams weren’t exactly happening because the baby was lonely, or because he was in distress.

They were happening because the other kid who was currently at the house had climbed up into the crib and was squashing his little brother’s legs underneath him. Some may say that laughter is the best kind of medicine there is, and those people may just have to be considered to be right, because nothing could top the rush of happiness that overtook her as she saw what was causing all the screaming, and when she started to laugh it got both boys laughing as well, which only made her happier. Typically she was only able to get Andres to laugh or even smile, as he was the one who loved her most, but he wasn’t there and yet she had both Sergio and Ryden both giggling madly.

The scene couldn’t last forever, though, not with someone being sat on, and so the fun came to an end when the bigger kid was put out on the floor and the baby was picked up to be held and have some quality time spent with. If there was one thing that bothered Heather more about the whole “parenting” thing than the fact that her partner didn’t appreciate her for the sacrifices she had made, it was that neither of the two kids present seemed to like her very much. It was one of those weird quirks in life, and she hated it more than anything else involving them.

“Surprised you’re not crying at me right now,” she softly said to the child in her arms, who didn’t seem to even notice that he was being spoken to. “Funny how the one of you kids who’s named after your dad likes me more, the one who was just given some old promised family name likes him more, and then you…” All traces of the laughter that had happened moments before was gone, not replaced with sadness but rather with disappointment, and she shook her head. “I finally get a say in a name and the kid I give it to hates me.”

While very much still too young to be capable of even the most basic of speech, Ryden was able to give his reply in a facial expression dear to his mom’s heart: a near-perfect replica of her own pout. It was every bit as sweet as getting him to laugh ever could have been.

* * *

The more things changed, the more they tended to stay the same. While there was no denying that something had to happen in terms of how they treated each other, it was clear that either there was going to be some respect learned, or this family was going to be torn in half. Thankfully for everyone involved, it was the first option that was acted on, and while there was no way that they’d be able to teach the kids to love both parents equally, it was completely possible for the only fighting that happened between Heather and Alejandro to be playful and not at all attacking.

Unless, of course, it dealt with the one topic they would never see eye-to-eye on, and then all bets were off in terms of playfulness. Even after he had been proven right _three_ times, she still wanted to have things fall in her favor, and the only way for that to possibly happen was for them to have another child. Adding a fourth kid into the mix, especially right away, was seen as a bad idea, so for a good many months they were allowed to fight back and forth about when they’d get their next chance to see if there was any change to the luck of the family. It was about two years after the day of the then-littlest one showing off his pout (a habit that he never dropped, at that) that it was once again proven that there was something in the gene pool that prevented any girls to be born into the family.

That meant four sons, no daughters, and a whole lot of masculinity taking over in Heather’s life for the far foreseeable future—or until a day that everyone who could remember it would like to forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter kind of marks the end of the "first half" of the fic. Starting with chapter 5, things get less explain-y and more immerse-y into events. Why? Because I had a lot I needed to set up, and sometimes showing rather than being a part of it is the way to go. Anyway, come back next week (hopefully) for another thrilling installment! :D


	5. Birthdays and Holidays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the day to celebrate one of the children's birthday, as well as to prepare for the holiday that follows it, and that means a lot of work and effort needs to be put in by this family. But the oldest kid here wants nothing to do with what he's being asked to do--as well as nothing to do with the parent who's asking him to do it.

The occasion had a dual purpose, and both were equally important. On one hand, it was the day before the Thanksgiving holiday, and that meant a lot of preparing for the following day’s feasting. On the other hand, it was a certain youngest child’s second birthday, and that meant celebrating him, on top of getting ready for what was to come the next day. Needless to say, it was one of busiest days in the house, and it was barely after seven-thirty in the morning when things started to get weird.

Although it was still early in the morning, there was no reason at all for anyone to be sleeping at that point, so, much like he did every morning before it, Andres went room to room, getting his younger brothers awake for the day. It was easier for him to do it than to bother his parents with the task, and he was sure that they appreciated his efforts, especially when it came to the weekend mornings when no one wanted to be up before noon. But on a special day like the current one, everyone needed to be awake and ready to take on the day, and so he did his job as diligently as he could.

He woke them up in order, starting first with Sergio, who knew the routine and understood it about as well as Andres did. After their daily, and completely friendly, wrestling match on the floor, the brothers parted ways, one to get dressed and see what there was he could do at the early hour, and the other to continue on with what he was doing. Waking Ryden was a bit harder, because he really liked kicking at anyone who dared touch him in his sleep, plus the dirty looks he gave when he was finally awake were ripped straight from nightmares. But after the requisite fighting between them he too was on his way to being prepared for the day, and Andres was then left with the hardest part of the job.

On this particular day, however, it was much harder. When he got to his youngest brother’s room, he saw that the door was already opened a bit, and a shiver of fear went down his spine. Had someone gotten in? Was something wrong? Before he could let those worries turn to sheer panic, he pushed the door open with as much might as he could, ran inside, and flipped on the light. Instead of an intruder running towards him, it was one Mr. Chocolate Vanilla Swirl, dashing out of the room as fast as he could. It happened so fast that Andres could barely comprehend what he had just witnessed, but then he heard the sniffling that was the precursor for loud crying.

“Oh, did the mean kitty cat get’cha?” Walking to the side of his brother’s bed, Andres hoped that just the sight of his smiling face would be enough to get the little one to not cry. “What did mom say about playing with him? Little boys don’t play with the kitty cat, right?” As he said those words, he couldn’t help but take on a tone that sounded much like his father—which, combined with the fact that he was the near-spitting image of him, could definitely fool someone into needing to do a double take. “Come on, let’s not cry and let’s be happy. It’s your birthday. Gotta be happy.”

It was then that he noticed that, across his brother’s face, was a thin scratch, not bleeding but just red, which seemed to be the cause of the problems. Or, at least, that’s what Andres hoped it was, because if it wasn’t he was definitely not going to be able to get the kid to stop crying. “The kitty scratched you?” he asked, miming a scratching motion, and the little one nodded, still sniffling and having tears in his eyes. “That’s no good. Know how we’re gonna make you happy and not crying?”

“N-no,” the shaky and small voice of the child in the bed replied. “How?”

Without really thinking about what he was doing, Andres dropped to his hands and knees, shaking his head so that his long, braided hair (the sole factor in him not being a perfect replica of his father) whipped around and rested on his back. “By playing horsey. You love horsey. Get on and get happy!” Just like that, there were no more sniffles, and the kid was climbing off of his bed and onto his brother’s back, grabbing hold of that long braid to act as a rein for the “horsey” ride. Once he was seated and secure, Andres started crawling around the room, trying to playfully buck his brother off of him every few moments, and after just a couple of minutes of the playing they were both laughing.

“What are you two doing in there?” Poking her head into the doorway, Heather couldn’t help but crack a smile at the sound of the two boys and their laughter, nor could she resist adding a chuckle to the mix at the sight she was witnessing. “Looks like you’re having a lot of fun in here, but I’m pretty sure that you both are supposed to be somewhere that’s not in here right about now.”

“Sorry, mom. It’s just that when I came in here to wake him up, I guess the cat got to him first.” Stopping his movement across the floor, Andres began to get up, sending his brother tumbling to the floor in a fit of screeching laughter. “And since it’s his birthday, I thought horsey would be okay.”

“You know the rules. No playing until after your father’s seen you’re all awake.” There was a slight amount of disgust as she spoke, which was driven home with the way she rolled her eyes. “As far as he knows, you and birthday boy Trevin there aren’t up, even though you obviously are. Why else would the other two be awake?”

Andres, now back to his feet and making sure that his brother was standing and getting dressed, gave a small shrug. “I’unno, mom, that’s something you should ask him instead of me. I just know he doesn’t…well, like me. So I bet he’d say it’s because they did it on their own, or something like that.”

“It’s too early in the day to be getting into that. If you want to talk later about it, that’s fine with me, but right now we all need to be somewhere and that somewhere is not in here. We’ve got a busy day ahead of us, and you know how your father will get if we keep him and his plans waiting any longer.” Rolling her eyes again at what she was pretending to be happy about saying, she soon disappeared from where she had stood in the doorway, and as she could be heard walking away, Trevin screeched and chased after her, even though he was half-dressed. That left Andres in the room alone, sighing and telling himself that everything was going to be okay when he finally joined everyone in the kitchen, just like usual.

Normal mornings didn’t start with him being slightly scolded by the parent who actually liked him, though, and if his mom was even marginally upset with him (even though he knew if she was, it wasn’t of her own choosing), then it was just going to be a terrible day for him. No matter what. When he left the room after finally getting a hold of himself and his negative thoughts, he spent more time looking at the walls and what decorated them than he did watching where he was going, mostly because he knew the way well enough, but partially because there was something about seeing all the smiling faces in the pictures that lined the hall that had a cheering effect on him. It wouldn’t keep him from thinking the day was going to be one of the worst ever, but it definitely would tell him that there was at least a chance that things would be okay.

Occasionally he’d catch his reflection rather than whatever forced family portrait lay behind the glass, and seeing a face so similar to the one that always looked at him with disgust didn’t help his inner problem. How was it that, of the four kids, he was the only one who didn’t inherit at least some of their mom’s beauty, all while being the only one who didn’t have a decent relationship with their father? Thanks to whatever was out there that wanted to see him suffer, he was doomed to look just like someone he couldn’t get along with, someone who disproved of the fact that he enjoyed spending time with his mom and doing more feminine things than those seen as traditionally masculine.

When he entered the kitchen where everyone was gathered, whatever conversation had been going on came to a stand-still, and everyone shifted to look at him, to make him feel like he was late for something important. He looked to the nearest clock and saw that it was just a few minutes later than normal, so whatever was going on was either more important than he realized, or everyone was just trying to scare him. Rather than apologize for coming in so late, he just took his normal seat, put his face in his hands, and waited for the inevitable to happen. “Now that we are all gathered here, on this fine and early morning, I do believe that it is time to start discussing the events for today and tomorrow.” If there was one positive thing that Andres could think about his father, it was that the man was pretty great at making everything sound like a formal event, speaking like he had to be proper about each and every thing, even if he was most likely wearing pajamas as he did it. “As we are all very aware, these two days are going to be very busy for us all, and if we do not make sure to each do our part, everything will collapse.”

“Is my part gonna be to clean up the toy room again?” Sergio asked, his face filled with excitement at the prospect of getting to spend several hours rooting through old toys that none of the boys even touched. “I would like that lots, if it could be.”

“Not anymore. While that may be what you are used to doing, after a long discussion last night your mother and I came to realize that there needed to be a shift in what everyone is tasked with, not just for today but for every day like this one.” There was a bit of a glimmer in Alejandro’s eyes as he looked between Heather and the four kids, only three of which were looking back at him. When he did get to looking at Andres, who still had his face hidden, there was a pause in motion, followed with a sigh and a shake of his head. “It seems someone is uninterested in what I have to say.”

“I’m listening, father.” Speaking with his face still covered, so that his voice was muffled, Andres made no effort to actually seem like he cared. “Just not happy that I won’t be in charge of making sure the main room is spotless.”

“You will enjoy this much more, I can assure you, because it is more suited to your interests. But before you know your new task, your brothers must know theirs.” Clasping his hands together loudly enough to startle everyone and get both pets running into the kitchen to make sure everything was okay, Alejandro got down to business quickly. “From today on, the task of preparing the yards and the main room of the house for guests will belong to Sergio, and his old job of keeping the toy room in order will now fall onto the shoulders of both Ryden and Trevin.” He clasped his hands together again, still as loud as before. “As today is a special day for one of you, he will naturally not have to do his work, but I hope that the two of you who will be working do everything as well as you can.”

Typically there would have been some sort of indication that they were supposed to run off and start cleaning, but since it was a very weird and special day, that indicator was different than its usual. Where it was normally a stern word from one of the adults to go, on this particular day it was a smile and a friendly reminder from _both_ parents that they loved them very much and appreciated it that they were willing to do chores just to make things run smoothly for the family.

When Andres finally got around to uncovering his face, after he had to sit through listening to all that love-y nonsense being flung at the two, he saw that they had disappeared, as had the third brother even though he hadn’t needed to. That left him alone, in the kitchen, with one person who loved him and one person who didn’t, and he didn’t have the liberty of getting to run off for the sake of doing work, because he didn’t know what he needed to do. “So, uh, since Sergio’s got my chores now, does this mean I don’t have anything?” he asked with a sheepish smile, making sure to look at his mom while he spoke. “I’d be cool with that, and if I didn’t have anything to do, maybe I’d be able to…uh, paint your nails or something?”

“While that does sound nice, I don’t think it’s me you’re supposed to be asking about what you need to do today. I may have helped decide that things were going to change, but I didn’t get much say in how they changed.” Pursing her lips together in a small frown, Heather gave a small motion for Andres to look at his father, and when the boy did he saw a very different version of him than the one his brothers had been treated to.

For starters, he wasn’t being looked at with happiness and shining eyes, and he definitely wasn’t about to be treated to any sort of inspirational and fun messages. “I do not know why you insist on speaking to your mother when I am present, but I hope that after we get to spend some quality time together you will learn to respect me just as you respect her.” There was a pause while the father and son stared at each other, one’s eyes narrowing while the other’s widened in fear, and more words didn’t follow until Alejandro dropped his intimidation act and started giving a big and nearly worrisome smile at Andres. “You shall learn that respect by assisting me in preparing the meals for these big days.”

Having expected to be told that he’d be doing something outrageous, Andres was a little caught off guard by the fact that his role change went from cleaning to cooking, and he took a second to make sure that he wasn’t dreaming before he commented on it. “Is that all?” he asked to clarify, and the nod he was given in response was enough to get him to crack a shaky smile in return. “Uh, thanks, father. I guess I’m happy that we’ll be spending some sort of time together.”

“Be sure of that happiness before we start, will you? I understand that you may not like me very much, but if you come into this with a positive attitude, we may grow closer together than you could believe.” The big smile faltered, replaced with a much smaller version of itself that didn’t help with the feeling of dread and terror that was starting to feel Andres. He never really had gotten along with his father, and yet here he was, being told that things were going to change in that regard. It was quite literally one of the most terrifying things to happen in his life, and he had no way of stopping it, not when he couldn’t just go to his mom and ask her to make things better in his favor.

Speaking of his mom, she was still sitting there, shaking her head at the two. “You know, this is either going to end really well, or someone’s going to get hurt. And since one of you doesn’t hold back his words, and the other has learned all he knows about arguing from me, I think the second option’s more likely. Just don’t kill each other, please.” At that, she got up and started to leave, but mere steps from being out of the room she stopped, turning her head to look back at them. Or, more specifically, the one who was reaching for a knife. “Don’t even think about cutting his hair off with that either. I swear to you, Alejandro, if the next time I see the boy he’s missing even a little bit of his braid I will not forgive you for it.”

“You are aware that cooking requires blades sometimes, correct?” he teasingly replied, grabbing the knife he had been going for and holding it up to show her. She rolled her eyes and continued on her way. “I would not be surprised if she was unaware of that fact. She could not even come close to cooking a decent meal if left on her own, and that is why this is something you and I must do together.” He had gone to speak to Andres there at the end, but when he looked at where his son had been seated, the chair was empty and there was no sign of him having been in the room, aside from the running footsteps that could be heard heading away.

* * *

Things possibly couldn’t have been worse than that for the kid. How was it that he was stuck doing something that he was told was boring and overly complicated with someone who never had anything nice to say to him? That was why Andres bolted the first chance he got, choosing to do what he had offered to do rather than what he was supposed to be doing. Spending time with his mom was always nicer than spending time with his dad ever could be, anyway, especially if that time was spent doing hair and playing with different nail polishes in many shades and colors. So maybe he was more feminine than his brothers and enjoyed getting to spend time giving his mom the bonding experience she had always wanted a daughter around for. Didn’t mean he was a bad kid, did it?

Well, it didn’t in his mom’s eyes, but it sure did in his father’s, a fact made very clear when, a few hours later in the day, he was almost literally dragged back into the kitchen by his father, being scolded that behavior like that wasn’t going to be tolerated, or something to that extent. It had taken maybe five seconds of being chewed out for Andres to try and find something else to focus on, and he chose the decorations on the refrigerator as his distraction. Like always, there was a whiteboard on the front, with magnetic letters surrounding it, and a game of hangman set up on it. Trying to figure out what the words (there were two) could possibly be was a great way to ignore the reminders that “boys _do not_ do” things like have painted toenails or long braids that go far down their backs.

But after the sound of the stern, scolding voice stopped filling the room and things more along the lines of actual bonding began, there wasn’t a lot of time to ponder what the game’s answer was. That was because there was so much else to be focusing on, like learning how to cook to the standards of a family that seemed to be more overbearing and demanding than really needed to be necessary. Between the reminders that one spoon was meant to be used to stir the contents of one pot and not another, and that the burners on the stove, even if they had been shut off, were still extremely hot, there was a bit of teaching of a different sort, something that honestly made Andres question what he had been scolded about just before they had begun cooking.

This was, of course, the fact that apparently cooking was seen as a feminine event, one that it was perfectly fine for boys to partaken in. “Um, I don’t think I understand why it’s so bad that I like doing things with my mom, then,” he said under his breath as he stirred a pot full of something-or-other. “I mean, if it’s cool for you to be into cooking, can’t I be into things that I like? Or is that not allowed?”

“There is a difference between what you are interested in and cooking, and that is that one of them is a necessary skill for survival, and the other is turning you into a female. Which, as we all know very well, you are not, no matter how much your mother would like to wish you were.” Setting down the blade he was using to chop vegetables, Alejandro looked at his son and shook his head. “But, the necessity of you knowing to cook also comes from her, so I would have to say that there are some things about her we should be thankful for.”

“I’d think there’d be lots of things, not just that she can’t cook.” His voice was still quiet, as he didn’t want to speak too loudly for fear of whatever words he used being used back against him later, so keeping his voice low was a way to make sure that what he said was left a little bit to the imagination. It was one of those adaptations that he had made over time, not exactly one he was proud of having had to make, but one he had at his disposal for situations like the one he was currently in. “Like, uh, maybe that she’s kind of the love of your life, and the mom to us boys, and all that sort of stuff. Just maybe, though.”

The knife was picked back up and the chopping of vegetables resumed, without any immediate comment on what had just been said, and Andres figured that he had simply upset his father with what he had said, so he just continued on with what he had been told to do. That was, until he heard his father say, “You would be right, if that were all we have to thank her for. There are some things about her that you do not know, and that is how it is meant to stay.”

“Like how she wants a girl around? Trust me, totally know that one.” The spoon clanged against the side of the pot as Andres let go of it, clenching both hands into fists. “I bet you think I spend all that time with her because I want to be that girl, and guess what? I don’t! I just like being with my mom!” He was raising his voice, almost to a yell, and it was unlike him to do such a thing.

The event definitely caught Alejandro off guard, as he was startled enough by the near-yelling that he quite nearly cut his finger, and once he was sure that he hadn’t hurt himself, he turned to face Andres, still with knife in hand. “I do not think you should be speaking to me like that,” he said, pointing the knife at his son’s face, causing the boy to go cross-eyed to look at it. “There is a level of respect that should exist between us, and you yelling at me is crossing a boundary you do not want to cross.”

“Then stop being such a meanie to me, just for liking mom more than I like you!” Replacing the confidence that had filled his voice as it had gotten louder was a trembling tone, one that wasn’t quite able to bring him from yelling. But when he saw the blade push a bit closer to him, nearly touching the tip of his nose, he started to shake in fear. “W-what, are you going to hurt me for not l-liking you as much?”

“No, I would never hurt a child that shares so much with me. Especially not in this way.” The knife pulled back and was cast aside, and when Andres stopped trembling long enough to get a good focus on his dad, he saw that he seemed to have started staring out into the distance, lost in his thoughts. There wasn’t going to be any real resolution to the problem at hand, not at that moment, and that meant just going back to cooking and trying to bond with someone who had shoved a knife in his face for not favoring him like his brothers did.

But on the opposite side of things, Alejandro couldn’t help but feel the slightest amount of regret for taking such a drastic action, even if it had been a reaction to being startled. When he really thought about it, wasn’t this kid just like himself when he was younger, albeit more extreme about things? Wanting to be more feminine, wanting less to do with anything that wasn’t his specific interest, things like that? Or was this a completely different situation, one that needed to be handled better? (In all the ways it shouldn’t have been handled, especially the ones involving knives, at least he hadn’t chopped off part of that braid.)

* * *

Since the vast majority of what had to be done that day was in preparation for the following day, there wasn’t that much that happened in terms of “celebrating” the birthday that was at hand. It wasn’t that big of a deal, because there was always the next day when people came over for Thanksgiving dinner to celebrate, and besides, the child who was supposed to be honored wasn’t even old enough to really grasp the whole concept of birthdays. He just knew that he got cake and presents and lots of attention, and that was really all that mattered to him.

But being able to pull off what little festivities there were for the occasion on top of getting ready for the next day was a difficult task, one that really had to be taken care of by the people in charge of cooking, who after their little fight hadn’t so much as said a word to each other that wasn’t about food. Their silence lasted all the way through the day and into the evening, when everyone had gathered for the fairly simple dinner they were having, and it most likely would have gone on longer had there not been someone present that found it odd that they weren’t talking, completely unaware of what had caused the issue. “You know, it’s weird that I haven’t heard a single word of praise on how perfectly this meal ended up, when I know that both of you worked hard on this,” Heather said, looking between Alejandro, who sat right beside her, and Andres, who was sitting as far away from his father as he could manage. “I’d have thought that you two would be going back and forth about how great of a job you did.”

“I would say something, if I wouldn’t be told I’m such a bad kid if I did.” Muttering more to himself than anything, Andres really had hoped that no one had heard his response, but he hadn’t taken into account the fact that one of his loudmouth younger brothers was right next to him, one that just loved repeating things that could get others in trouble.

That was exactly what Sergio did, except he didn’t repeat everything, just the key part to the sentence. “He wants us to say he’s a bad kid! I think he didn’t do his work today!”

“A bad kid?” Raising her eyebrows, Heather turned her focus solely to the man beside her, noticing that he didn’t so much as seem to realize that anything was even being said. “Okay, what did you do to get him thinking he’s bad? It didn’t deal with his ‘deviant’ behaviors, did it?” Still no reaction, and that was when she gave his arm a forceful smack. “You two were supposed to _bond_ today, not hate each other more!”

“It is not that I hate him at all, but more that we agree to disagree on his choices. What happened today between us was a mistake and I do regret it happening.” At the sound of his father’s voice, Andres stood up, grabbed his dishes, and left, and once his footsteps were echoing outside of the room, that was when Alejandro decided to clarify his statement a bit. “I do not regret spending the time with him, if that is what that sounded like. It was a wonderful experience, finding out that he is every bit as much a competent cook as I am, but there are some things about him that make spending time together a bit unbearable.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this. You can’t just decide you don’t like being around him just because he’s more like me. No wonder he doesn’t ever want to be with you!” After smacking his arm again, she got to her feet and stuck a pointed finger into his face. “I’m going to go attempt to fix things for your sorry excuse of parenting skills gone wrong. Don’t you dare follow me, got it?”

He pushed her finger out of his face and told her that he did indeed get what she was saying; as she was walking away to chase down their oldest son, he sighed and took a look at the three boys who had just witnessed what had happened, all of them with wide eyes and looking like they were about to cry. “Oh, lovely, it seems that someone forgot that showing violent actions in front of small children can upset them,” he called after her, knowing that she wasn’t listening. “Maybe I am not the only one here with inadequate parenting skills.”

The fact that the other kids would have been hurt by what just happened had never once crossed her mind, as all she really wanted to be sure of was that Andres wasn’t hurt as well. She found him where she figured he was going to have gone, the kitchen, where he was washing his dishes off and saying things to himself as he did. “Hey there, sweetie, do you want to talk about what happened?” Being warm and inviting was not something that Heather did very well, but damn did she try when it came to the one of her children that mattered most to her. “Or is this something you’re just going to handle on your own? Because I’ll let you have it either way.”

“I just want him to accept me for how I am,” Andres replied, giving a little sniffle as he did. “Don’t know how you can make him do that, but it’s what I want.”

“Yeah, that’s not something I can do. Can’t exactly go in there and tell him to do something he should already be doing. How about we keep working on you two bonding, and maybe through that he’ll accept you. But for that to work, I think you both have to put effort into it, and honestly, running off to come spend time with me, even if I really do appreciate it, isn’t going to help your case.” Shutting off the water he was using and drying his hands, Andres turned and approached his mom with outstretched arms to give her a hug for her advice, but she stuck her own arm out and stopped him. “Uh, no thanks on the affection tonight. Don’t need you stepping on my toes when they’re all decorated for tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow…right. More cooking and lots of people around here. I can’t wait.” The sarcasm was evident in his voice, but when he spoke again there was no trace of it. “Hey, wait a second. Can I ask you something, mom?”

“Go for it. As long as it’s not anything about how to get out of having to spend more time with your father tomorrow.”

“It’s not.” Although his face was angled towards the floor due to his head still being pushed away by his mom, he was able to point at what he wanted to ask about due to just knowing where it was, as it had been around for as long as he could remember. “Is the hangman puzzle off-limits until people are here tomorrow? Or can we play now?”

It took a moment for Heather to answer, as she had to actually look to the whiteboard on the fridge that had the game on it, just to make sure she knew what the solution was before she gave an incorrect answer. “I think it would be best if we saved that one for tomorrow, kiddo. Pretty sure that it’ll be more fun that way.”

“Oh, okay, I guess it was worth a shot.” Andres backed away and stood up properly, giving his mom a small smile. “Thanks for coming and making sure I was okay. I needed it. Feel kind of bad for doing this on such a big night, but…”

“Trust me, as long as there’s still cake and presents later, I don’t think Trevin will be too torn up that you sort of made his birthday all about you.” Smiling right back at him, she motioned back towards the dining room. “Come on, let’s go back and make sure your father hasn’t killed your brothers.” Even though he didn’t want to, the way his mom seemed so happy when she looked at him was enough to get him to agree, and so they went back to a room filled with unexpected laughter that disappeared when they reentered.

But even with all the bumps that day, it was only a prelude for what fairly terrible things were going to follow the following sunrise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So my dearest friend who this fic is written for, her birthday was actually on Saturday. Happy (late) birthday, my friend! Anyway, yeah, I kinda-sorta cliffhanger-ed this. But don't worry! All will be revealed next week in the next chapter. :)


	6. Two Opposite Sides of a Bad Argument

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, little kids understand things better than some adults. Other times, they're clueless about the simplest of things, including the details about kidnappings and what big words mean. Even if the big word involved 1) isn't that big at all, and 2) is one of those words that, based on the family they live in, should be basic knowledge to them. And what that word means creates even more animosity in a well-versed disagreement that seems like it's never going to end.

The wake-up call was the same time it always was, even if it was a bit less enthusiastic about the morning and seemed to be dreading the usual gathering. There were many reasons why that could possibly be, the top of the list naturally being that it was the one day of the year where all sorts of strange people came into the house, ate from the mounds of food that was prepared for the occasion, and left without any real way of knowing they were ever there. What was the deal with Thanksgiving, anyway? Was it just a day for eating and being with family? Was there more to it than that?

Sergio didn’t really know, and he didn’t really care either. He just knew that it meant getting to see people that showered him with attention that his parents didn’t, and it also meant the one day where the kids had their own dinner table, one that put him right next to the animals so he could feed them the food he didn’t want to eat. (That wasn’t a thing he was supposed to do, but it was something he did anyway just because there was something cool to watching a cat attack whatever was in some of the weird foods they were given.) What wasn’t there to be excited about the day that was upon them?

As he laid in his bed, pretending to be asleep so that his wake-up call was a proper one, he thought about what he had seen the night before, with his parents sort of fighting and his brother being so upset about something. But there wasn’t time to really dwell on that, not when said brother was coming into the room, sneaking up on him and grabbing him from his “slumber” just like he did every morning. This time, rather than them wrestling to the floor, nothing much happened after Andres had wrapped his arms around him, and it wasn’t until they were still laying there a minute later that he realized that it wasn’t like every morning after all.

To get his older brother to talk, Sergio pushed him off of the bed, and once he had dramatically rolled to the floor like he did sometimes in their fights, he rolled over so that he was a looming presence over the bigger boy. “Why are you being so weird?” he asked, seeing that he on the floor wasn’t getting into the fun of almost wrestling. “Did you get yelled at again? Did the cat get to you?”

“No, don’t worry about it. Just get up and get ready for today. I _guess_ we still have stuff to do before everyone gets here. At least, that’s what our dearest father told me when I spoke with him this morning.” Just the way that Andres spit those last words made it clear that he was not happy about having had to do that, and Sergio slightly regretted asking about the situation. That regret was quickly replaced with more curiosity, though, and he followed up with asking about what sort of stuff there was to do. “I don’t know what you have to do. Not my problem. I just know that I’m stuck, with him, in the kitchen, again!”

“That can’t be too bad. I like trying to help make food.” His face lighting up with a smile, Sergio decided to roll off the bed, landing directly on top of his brother, who pushed him off and onto the floor next to him. “What? Did I do a bad thing there?”

“No, you just don’t need to be on me. I’ve got to go wake the others up before I get in trouble again for being too slow.” As Andres picked himself up and went to the door to leave, Sergio got to his feet as fast as he could and followed his brother, grabbing onto his arm when he got the chance. “What are you doing? You don’t need to follow me.”

“You seem so sad, big brother. Can I make you less sad?” When he was given a negative response in return—or, rather, no verbal response at all—he decided that maybe it was for the best if he didn’t pursue further. The older boy left him there to get ready and get out to the kitchen on his own, which wasn’t something that usually took him very long to do. On this particular morning, though, it took a lot longer, mostly because he wanted to make sure he looked his very best for the guests that were coming. So instead of just throwing clothes on and looking decent, he actually went and made sure that his hair (which was kept short because if it grew any more than a couple of inches long it would start looking gross, a curse to having what his parents always called “horse hair”) was perfectly in order. He may have been young, but he knew that a boy always had to look good when people who weren’t family were going to be around.

How was he supposed to keep looking good, though, when he was told he had to go make sure that the front yard was completely perfect before people started showing up? When he had been told that he was supposed to do that, his first reaction was to look outside and see that there was a little bit of a wind blowing, just enough that it would ruin his hard work that he had put into his appearance. “But, but, but…” he repeated, turning his attention from the window to his parents, “I don’t wanna do that. Too icky.”

“You’re just trying to make excuses, aren’t you? It’s perfectly find out there for you to do what you’ve been so kindly asked to do.” At the sound of more repetition of a single word, the same one as before, Heather laughed, only for a moment before she got serious. “No, none of that. You are too big to be trying to fight what you _know_ you have to do.”

“But the wind! Momma, I can’t with the wind!” He pointed to his hair, which looked exactly as it had when he woke up except wet with sink water, before realizing that trying to argue with his mom was not going to work for him. So, with that in mind, he looked to his father, hoping that he’d be easier to win over. “Please don’t make me do this, dad. I can’t get my hair messy when people will be here!”

There was a split second where he thought maybe he was getting somewhere, when he saw a thoughtful expression on his father’s face, but when Alejandro spoke it was the exact opposite of what Sergio had wanted to hear. “You do have a decent argument when it comes to making sure you look your best for our guests. However, if you do not do it, then no one will, and we just cannot have that.”

Without even considering the consequences of his words, he was quick to reply and try and fight the denial. “Andres can do it! I can help cook and he can clean outside!” He put his hands on his face and pushed the corners of his mouth into a smile, hoping that the switch he had offered would be enough to get him out of having to do his work. There was no such luck, not when he wasn’t even told his idea was a bad one and was just given a pointed finger out of the room. That meant the end of his chances, and it meant that if something went wrong with his hair, he’d just have to fix it later. As he scuffled out of the kitchen, he could hear his parents saying something behind him, but he wasn’t really paying attention because he was just so bummed out that he didn’t get his way.

“Hi there, ‘Gio!” the chipper voice that belonged to Ryden exclaimed, right up in Sergio’s face without him realizing his brother was even there. “Whatcha gonna do?”

“I’m going to go outside and clean up,” he replied, his tone solemn and more dramatic than it needed to be. “You should go to the kitchen to be told what to do.” Pushing past his younger brother, it didn’t occur to him that he had just told someone who could have very easily done his job for him to go away. But when he turned to see if Ryden was still there, he was already gone, and that meant that there really was no way for him to get out of this task.

Sighing, Sergio went to the front door, unlocking it and opening it to see how bad the wind outside really was. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the plants blowing outside the window had made it seem, and he closed the door to put his shoes and jacket on. Sure, it wasn’t super cold out, but it could easily get cold while he was out there, and he needed to be safe. As he was getting his left shoe on, the right one still to come, he sneezed, whacking his forehead into his knee and disorienting himself for just a moment. In that moment, he attracted the attention of one giant dog by the name of Sofia, who came running to him and began sniffing him to make sure he was okay. He was, but she didn’t know that, because she was just an overprotective dog who wanted to make sure her boy was as fine as he could be.

“Off of me!” he squealed, pushing the dog that was much bigger away than him so that her face wasn’t in his. “I’m okay, Sofia! Go play with someone else! I have to do stuff!” But the dog didn’t listen and watched him carefully as he finished getting ready, and when he went outside she followed him, being trained well enough to know that she did not leave the yard at all. Should he have asked first before bringing the dog out with him? Probably, but again, Sergio wasn’t exactly one for thinking before he did something. He just dealt with the consequences as they came, if there were any to be had—and with how the dog behaved, there probably weren’t going to be many consequences.

His job was to pick up the toys that were in the yard, put them where they belonged, and to make sure that there wasn’t any trash on the ground. Easy enough, especially with a big dog who was as tall as he was as a companion. She was great at finding toys that were hidden in the grass, picking them up and bringing them to him, or even just giving a low bark at them to alert him to their presence. Together they were an efficient team, and that meant that there was no way he was going to regret bringing her outside. At one point, while he was taking an armful of toys to the side of the house where they belonged, he heard a strange noise back around front but didn’t question it, as sometimes noises were just noises and didn’t need investigating. Then Sofia started actually barking and he could hear what sounded like laughter in between her loud woofs. He dropped the toys as fast as he could and ran back out front to see who was daring to approach his dearest dog.

There was a person, one he recognized from some gathering in recent memory, but he couldn’t remember her name. She, however, quickly recognized him. “Hey there, Sergio!” she called to him, waving with the hand that wasn’t petting Sofia. “What are you doing out here? Playing welcoming committee? Because, let me tell you, I feel plenty welcomed by you and your pretty puppy here.”

“I’m, uh, picking up toys,” he replied, cautiously approaching the person, his eyes fixated on her red hair and almost crazy smile. “And she’s not a puppy. She’s a big dog. Just like I’m a big boy.”

“Uh huh, cool! She’s like a puppy, though, with how she just comes up to me and starts barking and wanting to be my friend. Wish I knew what she was really trying to say. Never got around to learning to speak dog.” The person laughed some more, and Sergio froze in his place, trying to understand if someone could _actually_ speak dog or not. “Hey, come on, aren’t you going to come here and take her in or something? I love to play with her, mmhmm, but she’s going to try and eat the food that people are going to bring in if she stays out here.”

“People brought food?” His eyes widened as the person nodded, and it was then that he noticed that there were several cars present that hadn’t been there before. “Oh, okay! Let me take her in and let my dad know people are here!” Forgetting that he had been hesitant to come close to this person moments before, he skipped happily up to her, grabbing Sofia’s collar and directing her back to the front door, which he opened, hollered inside that people were showing up, and pushed the dog inside, before closing the door again.

No sooner had the door latched was he picked up and turned to be facing a different person, one that he definitely did recognize just by sight. “Oh my gosh, you have gotten so big since I last saw you!” Sierra gushed, holding him tightly to her, and he gave her a big grin. If there was one person who wasn’t family that cared about him and his brothers, it was their unofficial aunt Sierra, who was always down for giving them love and attention when she was around. “What are you doing outside by yourself? That’s not okay, and your parents really need to be told that they can’t do that to a cutie like you.”

“He told me he was out here picking up toys. Which, correct me if I’m wrong here, wasn’t that what the last kid we saw out here was doing? Do they not know proper toy storage around here?” The other woman gave what sounded like a cackle. “Nah, just playing around. We shouldn’t get involved in their parenting stuff though, Sierra. I mean, they’ve got to know those ropes better than we do.”

Sierra hugged him for a bit longer before putting him back on his feet and turning to face the other woman. “I know they know it better, Izzy, but it doesn’t mean I can’t remind them that they have to remember people would kill for evidence that these kids actually exist. I don’t want them to send a kid outside to never see them again.”

“They’d see me again,” Sergio said, not sure at all what was happening between Sierra and Izzy but knowing that he wanted to give input. “I love my family.” He didn’t know that they weren’t talking about a willing sort of never seeing someone again, rather a kidnapping sort of thing, and even their slightly sad faces after he had spoken didn’t clue him into that conclusion. That was perfectly fine, however, because he wasn’t going to be taken from his front yard with two people who could watch over him around, and he sure wasn’t going to disappear when the rest of the people arriving for the day’s events got out of their vehicles and congregated near the front door, all faces that he knew to some extent and was more than happy to let into the house.

Or, rather, start to open the door for, just to have his father be on the other side of the door at the same time, pulling it open and dragging the kid along for the ride. Everyone got at least a chuckle out of that.

* * *

Since the meal wasn’t until many hours later, and everyone had gathered early to help out in whatever way they could, that meant that there was a lot of people just sitting around and talking, while they waited for some room to open up where the cooking was happening. This made great use of the chairs in the kitchen, because it allowed for them to sit and watch and let everyone be part of the conversation. As she always tried to be, Sierra was in the middle of the action, trying to make sure she caught every snippet of gossip that all of her friends shared, just so that she had something to post about on her blogs later that night.

“So,” she started, “does anyone have anything interesting to share with everyone here today?” How else would she get the gossip she wanted from the people she had convinced to come out to this lovely house with her, as well as the people who lived in it? Maybe it was a bit weird that, aside from her and Cody, who were definitely invited by the homeowners, she was the one in charge of selecting who got an invite for the most part. But it meant that she’d get the chance to pick who got to see her unofficial nephews, and she had to make sure that the people she invited were going to follow the same rules she had to, those ones about no pictures or anything about the boys leaving the property. No one bit the bait she was laying out, and that meant it was time to ask someone in particular. “Izzy, come on, you’ve got to have something to share!”

“Nope, kind of out of ‘cool stuff’ happening in my life,” Izzy replied, before bursting into her cackling laugh at the sound of whatever she was heating up starting to boil. “Bet someone else can answer that for you. Like maybe Courtney! Law life, yeah?”

“Oh please, don’t act like you’re actually interested in my law stuff. Why, if I wanted to, I’m sure I could let the authorities know exactly where you are right now.” There was a devious grin on Courtney’s face as she spoke, which caused Izzy to stop laughing and mutter something about trust under her breath. “Anyway, there isn’t much to talk about in terms of my personal life, although I’m sure that someone who wasn’t asked to come out to this get-together from across the country may have more to share that’s, ahem, relevant to any of your interests.”

“Or maybe you’re hiding something that you don’t want any of us to know.” Speaking with a sassy tone to her voice, Gwen gave Courtney a look that made it clear she wasn’t buying into her response, and with reason. “Come on, what’s his name, what does he look like, is he going to leave you for me and you blame me for it? Give us details, woman.”

Courtney laughed, an infectious giggle that spread to a few people in the room, mostly the children but Sierra got in on it too. When she collected herself, she was still giving a giggle here and there but she had definitely gone back to her grin from before, her cheeks a little rosier than before. “There are no details to be given. You of all people should know this, Gwen! If there was a guy, I would have told you first thing. Just to make sure that what happened that one time didn’t happen again.”

“Wasn’t aware that I signed up for listening to high school drama when I agreed to come to this thing.” Putting a hand to his mouth to cover his very fake yawn that he gave, Noah looked to Sierra with a disapproving expression on his face. “Please tell me that you didn’t make Izzy bring me here with her just so I could have to suffer through this.”

“No, that’s not why I asked her to bring you. I really thought we’d be having some sort of fun right now!” Sierra pounded a fist on the counter, attracting the attention of everyone in the room, despite Cody next to her telling her to calm down. “I’m not calming down right now, Codykins, because I need to know what’s going on with these people! What good is Thanksgiving for if we aren’t learning secrets about each other?”

“A holiday for being thankful, maybe?” Noah suggested, knowing that his answer was not the one she was looking for.

She replied to that by pounding the counter again, and to her surprise a strong hand was placed on hers to keep her from doing it a third time. “I will have to ask you to refrain from making noises such as that one, as it disrupts everyone in the house, and I am sure that you do not want to deal with the wrath of someone people when they are disrupted.” Once he was finished speaking, Alejandro lifted his hand off of Sierra’s, and she seemed to have gotten his message, evident by the way she pulled her hand off the counter and put it in her lap. “Thank you for understanding why we cannot have you doing that.”

“You got it. Except I don’t really understand why I can’t do that. Usually there’s no rule against it, and man oh man have we caused some rackets with fists and stuff.” Sierra leaned forward enough to see the seat on the other side of Cody, where Sergio had situated himself to be part of the action. “Little guy down there really gets into it when we start trying to out-loud each other.”

“Yes, and that has been fine on other occasions, but today I cannot allow you to do that.” The sentence was punctuated with the sound of smaller fists banging on the countertop, which caused two different reactions: some, namely Sierra and Andres (who was, unwillingly, in between his father and Izzy, helping cook), were cracking smiles at the sound, while others, particularly every other adult in the room, was looking at the culprit with varying states of shock on their face. None was more shocked at the obvious disrespect than the man who had just said it wasn’t allowed, though. “You may find your behavior right now to be funny, but I need you to stop. Do you want your mother to come in here and be very disappointed that one of her own children is annoying her?”

Without stopping his hand-banging, Sergio’s face lit up in a smile and he nodded. “Yeah! She will come in here then!” His reply got him a sigh and a shake of the head in return from his father, who was clearly not going to try and stop the kid from whatever he might have been causing. After all, trying to punish him in front of so many other people would only make him seem like a terrible parent, and that was the close to the last thing that was needed then.

The only reason it wasn’t the actual last thing was because the banging was eliciting the exact response from the only person not present that had been warned against. “Okay, if one of you _really_ wanted me in here, you’ve got me. Because obviously it’s wrong for me to try and ever get to relax a little bit before everything goes to hell around here.” Her voice coming from right outside the entryway to the kitchen, nearly everyone turned to look to see what sort of murderous expression Heather would be wearing if she was speaking like that, but they were all made to be disappointed when she appeared and the only negativity her face was exuding was the icy glare she was shooting—and without even looking at his mom, Sergio knew that he was being glared at and promptly stopped his noisemaking. “You can all turn back to whatever you were doing before I was called in here, thanks,” she said, when she dropped her glare and saw all the pairs of eyes focusing on her. “Glad you all think I’m important, but this isn’t necessary.”

“Huh, I’d say it is pretty necessary, since you disappeared when we all showed up, and haven’t bothered to make it look like you’re ready for the day,” Noah replied, as he went back to leaning his chair against the wall and staring up at the ceiling to ignore what was going on around him. “But that’s just my opinion.”

As he finished speaking, there were a few different things that happened all at once: the two youngest children in the room realized that their mom was present and they screamed and ran to her; Gwen and Courtney, who had each been holding one of those kids, looked to each other with quizzical looks based on what Noah had just said; and Sierra, also taking in Noah’s words, had her eyes widen to nearly the size of plates and she covered her mouth to stifle a scream. Ignoring the fact that she was now being clung to by two kids very excited to see her, Heather’s only reaction to the situation was to look at Sierra and mime zipping her lips closed. “Don’t you say anything, got it? Last thing we need here is you starting rumors or something because of this.”

“You got it.” Giving a thumbs-up, Sierra also did the zipping motion, before nearly screaming to herself again. Since no one else really knew how to take that exchange, things fell back to how they had been before the loud noises had started, with just idle chitchat and the occasional attempt to start conversations that always fell flat.

Then, after some position shuffling in terms of who was assisting with the cooking, Izzy, from her new seated location, noticed something hanging on the fridge that she felt needed to be pointed out. “Oh hey cool, hangman!” she exclaimed, pointing at the setup. “Looks like someone’s already started one, too! I think we should play it!”

“I think so also,” Andres said, his voice barely able to be heard by anyone except his father, who told him to not focus on what everyone else was doing and instead worry with the cooking. “No, I want to play. I’ve wanted to since yesterday.”

“Come on, he can pay enough attention to two things at once to make it work. Let’s give this a shot, since I’m sure everyone here would like to get this one out of the way so they can play their own.” In the time since she had come into the room and had her moment of telling Sierra to not say something, there had been a bit of a temperament change in Heather, as she had quickly taken to just talking with some of the people present up until the moment hangman was mentioned. “Except, before we start, I’m setting some rules.”

“Is one of the rules going to be that we can’t guess the words outright? Because from the way she’s starting to shake,” Noah motioned to Sierra, who was swaying where she now stood, “she’s about five seconds from giving us the answer.”

“No, the rule is that she can’t participate, because she was told to not say anything. Last time I checked, if she answered, she’d be going against what she promised me when she zipped her big mouth shut.” There was a disappointed groan that Sierra gave off, but she understood that a promise meant she couldn’t go against it, and so she had to not play. “There, that’s the rule, now does anyone want to guess a letter?”

What Heather had failed to get from what Noah had said there was that there _needed_ to be a rule against guessing the words without any letters, because thanks to how she was insisting that someone be quiet about it, added in with the way Sierra was acting about it, everyone who wasn’t a child knew what it was. And no one was really going to give any of the kids a chance to guess letters, especially not when Izzy was around and she could move faster than anything, arranging the plastic letters on the blanks of the whiteboard before anyone thought to tell her not to do that. “There, that oughta do the trick!” she said as she stepped away from her masterpiece, a filled out hangman puzzle with absolutely no bad guesses, nothing drawn on the little gallows that had existed for years.

“I…don’t get it.” A moment or two after the puzzle was filled in, he got the chance to look at it, and that was all Andres thought to say, until he added, “Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I don’t know what one of those words is, so I can’t tell. I bet my brothers can’t tell either, and I think it would be nice if someone would explain…”

“You don’t know what one of those words is?” Courtney repeated, before clearing her throat and acting like she didn’t sound like she was finding it weird. “I’m honestly surprised that you haven’t seen it before, living in this house. Why, that phrase up there must be one of the most common things said in this house, seeing how your parents are.”

Her swaying turning to nearly bouncing where she stood, Sierra figured it was fine for her to speak, but before she said a word she tried to give Alejandro a hug (he laughed, but refused to let her) and then went to be by Heather’s side, starting to actually bounce by that point. “I’m not going to agree with what Courtney said about that being a common thing said around here, but oh my _gosh_ it’s going to be at this rate! Another baby!”

Their ears catching the last word, both of the older boys looked to each other, looks of confusion and worry taking over their faces. Simultaneously, their eyes tracked to that whiteboard, and everything sort of clicked for them both. Of all the ways to be informed that they’d be getting another sibling, this had to have been one of the worst, especially since it wasn’t even their parents who told them.

To add more to the ugliness of that entire situation, there was still a meal to be had a few hours later that everyone had to sit through. Unlike previous versions of this get-together, there was actually something for everyone to talk about, even if the conversation was limited strictly to the adults and the kids were relegated to listening only—and they were more involved in the subject matter than nearly anyone else in the room. But since they were at their separate little table, they weren’t allowed to participate in the chatter that they definitely had to listen to, if only to make sure that this whole situation was real. Why else would a group of adults spend so much time talking about months or weeks or something to that effect?

“So, okay, let’s get down to the real business now with all this!” Much like she always was, Sierra was trying her hardest to be in control of the conversation, and although it wasn’t her place to be, no one was going to argue with her about it. “Since now that everyone totally knows there is a baby, which was super obvious anyway, but whatever, we need to know details! Give us details!”

“Don’t try and force them,” Cody warned, looking at Sierra with a slightly exasperated expression, knowing that she wasn’t going to listen to him. “If you get too pushy, they’re just going to hide everything from you, because they can.”

“They would never!” she snapped back, before taking a few deep breaths to try and collect herself before she lost whatever cool she had and started getting pushier than she already was. “Or, I guess, maybe they would a little bit. Probably should back off just a tad.” Her words were punctuated with little hand gestures that showed just how much she felt she needed to back off, and while they weren’t exactly what Cody wanted to see from her, at least it was something.

However, it was pointless as neither person who could give details was really paying attention to the bickering. They were just focusing on their meal as well as each other, trying their hardest to not notice that everyone else in the room, excluding the kids, seemed to only want to talk about this big news that had been revealed. Yet it was one of those kids who was the one to get the conversation really started, and it only happened when it hit the youngest one like a ton of bricks that he wasn’t going to be the baby in the family anymore. His way of dealing with it was to grab a handful of vegetables and throw it across the table, hitting two of his brothers in the process, and then screaming. “I know, I totally get that way too sometimes when I realize I’m not the one getting attention in a group,” Izzy—who was able to watch the incident from where she sat—said with a laugh. “I can definitely relate to what must be going through your tiny little head. At one point, everyone was watching me for what crazy things I’d do, and then I got replaced by someone less crazy and it hurt. Did I care? Not really, but still!”

“If that is meant to be an insult to him based on this situation, I do not appreciate it on his behalf. While your story there would be humorous if he were able to really understand it, there is no point in saying it as he does not know what you are saying.” Without looking at who he was speaking to, Alejandro managed to tell Izzy off and get her to sit wordlessly, unsure of what she should do next. He, on the other hand, knew exactly what he was going to do, and that was to get up, grab the kid who was now throwing food at the dog (who was more than happy to clean up the mess he was making), and return to his seat with the kid now on his lap. “Besides, can we not look at this face,” he motioned to the displeased expression that Trevin was presently giving, “and see how thrilled he is to soon be gaining a younger brother?”

“Excuse me, but I’m pretty sure this one’s going to be a girl, so if you could stop acting like things are set in stone, that would be great.” The way Heather spoke, it was as if what had just been said had deeply offended her, and there was no way she was going to let things slide so easily. “Besides, where would the fun be if you were right yet again? Oh, I know, there wouldn’t be any fun anywhere. Because we are done having sons, okay?”

“No, _mi amor_ , we are certainly not done, and you know this as well as I do.”

“Don’t act like just because you’ve been right four times now, it means that you’ll be right every time. It’s a fifty-fifty chance each time, and this time it’s going to fall in my favor.” She looked around the table at everyone, seeing that most of them had concerned looks on their faces, and the pride she had just been showing off in her assertion that she was right quickly subsided. “Uh, this is the part when you’re all supposed to agree with me.”

Like with how the conversation had really gotten started, the lack of agreement first came from over at the kids’ table. “Mom, I don’t want a sister, no way!” Sergio said, covering his mouth after he did when he saw his mom gasp. “I-I mean, we have Andres! He’s like a girl!”’

“I am not like a girl,” the boy who was mentioned muttered, as he saw that his father had sat up a bit straighter at that comment. “And besides, a sister would just mean more work to do. More toys and stuff like that. So no thank you.” At the mention of more work, Ryden had started shaking his head and repeating that he also didn’t want a sister, using the reason that cleaning his own toys up was bad enough.

“That’s really cute, how none of them seem to want what would be best around here,” Gwen commented, making sure to get a good look at the four boys before she had said anything. “I think adding a girl to this mix would make things more interesting.”

“Yeah, except she would be eaten alive, or she would be the worst person to ever exist. No in-between, not in this family of eels.” Noah crossed his arms in front of him, leaning back in his chair. “Although I do agree that it would be interesting, I’d rather not have to hear from Sierra that the poor kid died because she wasn’t like her brothers.”

Division lines were drawn, and when the points were done being argued and countered, it was very clear that almost no one felt that bringing a girl into the male-dominated family would be a good idea. In fact, the only people who felt that way aside from Heather were Gwen and Sierra, the second one only leaning that way because she wanted to see what a little Burromuerto girl would look like; everyone else, with the exception of Courtney, let it be known that they thought another boy would be best. After the arguing had ended, and the lopsided results were revealed, that was when Courtney decided she was going to put in her reasoning for not picking either side. “I can’t in good conscience say either way,” she started, “simply because I know the names you slap on these children, and I’d have to know what you’d name this one and decide if it would be a name they’d come to me to have changed or not before I could even pick. Sorry if that seems like a bad reason for me being indecisive, but I can’t say one way or the other until I know this kid won’t be screwed for the first years of life with a bad name.”

“Bad names? Surely when you speak like this, you are referring to the two children with names that were picked by their mother. The names I selected were family names, unlike the ones that Heather had chosen. Which, I must confess, I have no idea what inspired her to pick such, er, lovely names.” Alejandro gave a smug smile at his wife, who rolled her eyes back at him. “What, do you take offense to the fact that I find the names you gave two of our children slightly strange?”

“Not at all. But I know it kills you inside that the kid you’re holding has got one of the least proper and pristine names that I could manage to come up with.” If there was to be more to that thought, it was derailed by Sierra giving a little cough, as if there was something that was forgotten, which made Heather roll her eyes again. “Okay, fine, that me and Sierra could come up with. Can’t forget that she went out and bought one of those name books to help me out with driving you crazy.”

“If that was your intent, then you have failed at it, because while it is a strange name, it now belongs to one of the lights in my life, and I cannot judge it without judging him as well.” A couple of the people present made noises that showed they found the situation adorable, something he liked hearing. If they were on his side for all of that, there was no way that they’d disagree with what he was about to say: “However, due to the fact that I do not want there to be an even more outlandish name than Ryden or Trevin to precede the name of our family, I think that, regardless of what gender this new child may be, I will be the one to decide its name.”

“And I think that just proves that I did drive you at least a bit crazy with those names.” Giving him a smug smile of her own, Heather’s attention then turned to the fact that they were supposed to have been enjoying a nice holiday meal, not having a giant argument about babies. So, in the only way she knew how, she made sure to put an end to it for the moment. “You know what? We’ll settle this later. All of this. We’ll have a day where all of us gather here again and we finish what we’ve started. Mostly which one of us is right, though, and we’ll do it the same way we did it the first time.”

Since she was saying it to get the meal back on track, there was no way to argue against it, and so it was decided that there would be no resolution until a later date—a way later date, at that, to mimic the first time they went through this disagreement. Was anyone pleased with that decision? Not a one. But it was seen as the best way to handle things, and it gave everyone time to mull their side over a bit more before the lines were dissolved and everyone had to accept reality. The lack of a solid resolution did lead to more fighting as the night went on, not on the same topic but due to the fact that people had a lot of fight in them because of what had transpired. What should have been a happy day of celebrating not just a holiday but the news of a new baby had turned into a day of fighting and animosity, and although it should have been one to be remembered for years to come, it was instead one everyone would like to forget.

Of course, there were always worse days and events to try and forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, raise your hand if you saw all this coming. Now raise your other hand if you think you know where this is going. Put your hand down, because there's still two chapters to go and a lot is going to happen between now and the end. :)
> 
> Which brings me to a huge point I've got to share with y'all: unless I get my writing in gear, the last two chapters will be delayed a bit. Well, I'm about 75% sure there'll be an extra week gap between 7 and 8, but I don't know about between this one and 7. I'll try to get everything out on time, but it's crunch time in the semester for papers and whatnot, plus next week is a huge celebration week for me. :o So yeah, if nothing gets posted next Monday, that's why! Thanks for sticking around for this fic! :D


	7. Snow Falling Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In the penultimate chapter of this fic, two very distinct things happen, the second only being the monster it is because the first one happens. And the first one has everything to do with the ongoing animosity going on between a father and his oldest son...

Outside the walls of the house, snow was falling down from a dreary gray sky that seemed to make everyone’s mood be sour. Inside, though, was warm and bustling, even though there was very little conversing that happened without someone getting snapped at. With just over a month before Christmas, there was a lot that needed to get done, especially with so many children who enjoyed the season in the house, and all of those things needed a lot of cooperation and work to get flowing.

But having only the younger three kids helping out was not going to get things set up and properly decorated very quickly, something that Alejandro knew very well. But he also knew that getting help from the oldest child was next to impossible on a day like the one they were having, because of all of the negative attitudes the weather was giving everyone, as well as the fact that Andres, as usual, was making the effort to bond with his mom instead of doing as he was supposed to. While neither were good reasons for why he wasn’t there, at least the first one was something different, while the second one was never one that would be excused—a fact that _really_ should have been gotten by then.

Work had to be stopped for the moment, it was ultimately decided, because having kids who didn’t exactly know what they were doing try to set up decorations on their own while their father wasn’t around was never going to end well. Neither was them decorating with his help and supervision, at that. That was why Andres had to be there, because he was the one who would be fastest and most competent at the decorating, and the only way that he’d be there would be if someone went and physically brought him to where the boxes of decorations that needed to be sorted through were. And as none of the kids were exactly big enough to do that, it meant that it was a task for one fairly displeased Alejandro to take on, something he accepted but was not happy about in the slightest.

There was no way anything was going to get done without Andres there, though, and that meant that getting him just had to happen. Like usual, he was found with his mom, but also like usual their location was somewhere that reflected what feminine activity they were taking part in. This particular instance, for example, he found them sitting in front of one of the house’s big windows, bottles of nail polish sitting on the floor next to them and the cat very close nearby. Rather than just ruining the moment right away to collect the boy and drag him screaming into the other room, Alejandro decided to stand back and watch the two for a moment, just to see what was going on before he ended it, and from the spot he chose to watch them he could also hear the discussion that was going on.

“I don’t know why it’s wrong for me to do this,” Andres was saying, as he was grabbing some of the nail polish and opening the bottle, taking the brush to one of his fingernails once he had it. “It’s just color, right?”

“It is just color, and that’s why I think it’s stupid that if you get caught doing this, you get in trouble. Like, really? I say you can do it, so you can do it. Easy as that. But since I don’t want you getting in trouble right now, don’t paint your own nails and paint mine instead.” It brought a small smile to Alejandro’s lips, hearing the woman he loved telling the son that he, er, sort of loved to not do one of those activities that was frowned upon, even if it was to do a different activity that was also frowned upon. But that could easily be forgiven, as he saw that she was referring to the nails on her toes, and in her current state of being she couldn’t exactly get to her toenails very easily, if at all.

That would have all been fine and perfect, had Andres actually done what his mother had told him to do. Instead he continued to brush polish onto his own nails, completely ignoring what he had been told. “I’ll do your next, mom, I promise. I just want to do mine first.”

“I’m telling you, you’ll get in trouble for that. It’s stupid, but it’s true.” Looking from his nails to his mom, Andres shook his head and went back to his painting, and she sighed. “Come on, either you like getting in trouble, or you don’t get it that maybe you should tone down this ‘being like me’ thing you’ve got going on. I love it, don’t get me wrong, but someone else doesn’t love it and you’ve got to keep that in mind. What will he think when he sees this?”

“He’ll think I’m trying to be a girl. Like always.” There was a moment where the room became quiet aside from the sound of the cat purring, but then the bottle of nail polish was set back down, a soft noise of glass touching carpet. “Mom, listen to me, I think he hates me and he wants me to feel bad for liking you. I know, you don’t like when I say that. But it’s true! He hates me! And—“

“I do not hate you.” Stepping out from where he had been watching, just his mere appearance made Heather cover her mouth in shock and Andres to go very pale, his eyes widening in fear as he watched his father come closer. “However, I do not approve of what you are doing here, at all. You are well aware of what you were supposed to be doing right now, correct?”

“Uh, yeah, I guess,” the boy replied, trying to hide his hands so that his painted nails couldn’t be seen. “Decorating for stuff, I think. Not anything I really wanted to do, and since I sort of have three brothers I figured they could do the work for me. Mom had been talking about having a day where we sat and did fun things, so I chose today for that.”

“You do not get to _choose_ to not do something you are told you are doing, no matter how much you despise spending time with me.” Maybe taking a harsh tone there wasn’t the best idea, based on the situation and the content of his sentence, but it was hard enough at that moment for Alejandro to keep his words in a language everyone present could understand that some mistakes were going to be made. “Now I do understand that you feel you are more wanted here with your mother, but you are needed more with your brothers.”

There was a second where Andres looked like he was going to give in to what was being demanded of him, but before he could say any half-hearted apologies, he noticed that his mom had narrowed her eyes and was shaking her head at his father. “Uh, mom, you look like you want to say something…” he commented, hoping that she did, and that whatever it was would get him off the hook for what he had done.

“I do want to say something, but I don’t think it’s anything you need to be hearing. In fact, it’s not anything I want to have to say. Yet here we are, in a situation where I think I’m going to have to say it.” Pointing one of her freshly-painted fingers in Alejandro’s direction, Heather shook it at him a few times before getting to the point she didn’t want to make. “You think you can come in here, ruin my moment with my son, and then tell him that he’s needed somewhere else when there is not a single person in this house that could ever need him more than I could? Yeah, no thanks. I don’t care if that’s how things were handled back when you were a kid, or whatever it is that makes you act like such a jerk when Andres is involved, but you do not ever, and I mean ever, get involved in our bonding time. Got it?”

“I do not see this as bonding time so much as it is you trying to make _our_ son,” he made sure to heavily emphasize there, “into more of a feminine boy than he already is. And while I have no issues with him embracing his feminine side, there is a limit and you are pushing him completely past that.” That was when he reached for the long braid that hung down his son’s back, to give an example by sight, but when he went for it the kid had moved, escaping the impending argument before it could get worse. The lack of a child being there caught him off guard. “Okay, this is no time for joking around. Where did you tell him to go in case I came in?”

When he looked to Heather to watch her respond and be able to call her on whatever lie she decided to make, he saw that she was just as confused as he was, and their eyes met after she looked around the room to see where the boy ran off to as well. “I didn’t tell him anything, thank you very much. Nice to see that you trust me about as much as you trust him, though. Makes me feel really great about our relationship.”

“Maybe he actually listened to me and is out doing what he should have been doing all along,” Alejandro said, ignoring what his wife had just accused him of and breaking eye contact with her to head out of the room. “You stay in here and remain as beautiful as always, _mi amor_. I promise to you that I will handle all of this animosity and make things right, as they should be.”

While he walked towards the door, he could hear her behind him, shuffling around and eventually coming to follow him, made more evident when she grabbed his arm and spun him around to face her once more. “Oh no you don’t,” she told him. “You’re not fixing anything, because your method of fixing things with him is to make them worse. Don’t think he hasn’t told me about that knife incident.”

“It was one time, and if there had been anything else in my hand it too would have been pointed at his face. Now let me go and do what I must, and you can stay in here and not worry about a thing. Getting too worked up here would not be good for you or the baby, and the last thing I want is for anything to happen to either of you.” The way he sincerely smiled at her was enough to get her to believe him, because sure they may have been bickering, but he did love her in the end, and he did have her best intentions in mind. She let go of him and stepped back, seeming to have given up on stopping him. “As I said, I promise to you that I will make things right.”

“Good luck making things right when you’ve been making them wrong for years,” she replied, smirking at him a little. “And when you’re done fixing things up with him, you’re coming back here and fixing them with me. Because I am so not happy with you right now.”

He gave her his word that he would do just that and went on his way, in search of the kid that seemed to have just disappeared in the middle of an argument involving him. Hoping that what he had thought was true, the first place Alejandro went to look was the main room, where the two youngest kids had started to make a mess of decorations (something that had been expected). But something there was off, as Sergio was nowhere to be found, and if there was one thing that he’d learned in his years being father to these kids was that if the adventurous kid was missing, there was some sort of terrible thing that was going to happen. After all, if there was one kid who was going to be responsible for some sort of mayhem, it was going to be the one who regularly let the animals outside where they did not belong, and didn’t seem to grasp the concept that he wasn’t allowed to do what he wanted to do when it involved life-threatening circumstances.

And that was when he looked out the window and saw someone walking outside in the snow, wearing a brightly-colored jacket and headed towards one of the biggest trees in the yard—a sure sign that everything was about to go very wrong. Without so much as bothering to put shoes or even a jacket of his own on, Alejandro ran to the closest door, threw it open, and ran outside. The snow bit at his feet but he ignored it as he chased down the boy who was wandering around by his lonesome. Like he had figured, it wasn’t the kid who had disappeared but rather his younger brother, and when he asked Sergio why, exactly, he was outside without permission, the boy’s answer was enough to make all worries intensify: “Because Andres came out here! If he’s gonna play, I’m playing too!”

“He came out here?” There may have been snow falling from the sky, but it was still possible to see a decent amount into the distance, and there was no sight of anyone else outside but them. “Surely you are mistaken. Where would he be, if he were out here?”

After hesitating just a moment as he thought about ratting his brother out, Sergio pointed up into the tree. “There. He said he was hiding, and that’s where he hides outside.”

“Of course that is where he would be. How about you go inside and let your mother know about this, because I know she will be able to get him down. I will stay out here to make sure nothing happens while we wait for her.” Ruffling the boy’s hair and sending him on his way, Alejandro hoped that the kid wouldn’t take too long doing what he was told to do. It wasn’t too cold outside, but being barefoot and jacketless was not exactly the brightest thing he could have done, and he didn’t want to stand around outside for much longer. But he couldn’t leave where he stood, not when he knew that there was someone up in the tree who definitely was not supposed to be there, and while he also knew that waiting for someone that would get Andres down with little trouble was the best idea, he didn’t want to have to wait. So that meant trying to get him down himself. “What told you that climbing a tree during a snowstorm would be a good idea?” he asked, turning his head to face the higher branches. “Get down here, before something happens and you regret this decision.”

“I’m not getting down for you!” a wavering voice yelled back at him. “No way! I’m not doing it, just because I know you’ll punish me for this!”

It took a few deep breaths, but somehow Alejandro was able to reply without sounding too angry. “If you get down right now, there will be no punishing at all. In fact, if I closed my eyes at this moment and opened them back up to see you standing here next to me, I would forgive everything wrong you have done today.”

“Like what, wanting to be around someone who cares about me? You’re a terrible father, and there’s nothing that’ll change that!” A few branches started to shake, giving away his location in the tree, which was about halfway up it. “I won’t come down, never for someone who hates me so much!”

“Why does it always come back to this point? I do not hate you. I disapprove of some of your interests, yes, but that does not mean I hate you. It just means I wish you would become less like your mother, and—“ He was cut off by a scream, one that sounded more like it had come from a wild animal than a child in a tree.

“I’m not like her at all! Do you know what she says when I’m spending time with her? No, I bet you don’t, because it involves me and you _hate me_!” The tree shook more as it became clear that Andres was losing his temper where he was. “She always says that I’m so much like you! I look like you, I act like you, I’m pretty much exactly like you! But because I like her more than you, it means you don’t want anything to do with me!” There was a split second where the tree stood still, immediately followed by a sickening snap and another scream, this one different than the unhinged one before.

This scream, lasting the time it took the boy to fall the distance from where he had been hiding to the ground, ended with a different sort of snapping sound. Naturally, it was right as he hit the snowy ground that the person who should have been the one trying to coax him down came outside, and she was greeted to the scene by the sight of her oldest child laying on the ground, in a stunned silence. “Uh, what’s going on out here?” she managed to ask, before yet another kind of screaming started.

“He just fell out of the tree, much like any disobedient boy who decides that hiding on snowy branches is a good idea,” Alejandro replied, over the sound of Andres and his cries that something was wrong. “While I would love to stay and make sure that he is okay, I am beginning to freeze out here and you would be more suited for the task anyway.”

“No way, you’re not getting out of this that easily,” Heather snapped back. “You came out here improperly dressed, you’re just going to have to deal with it. Besides, what good am I going to be if he’s down there? Can’t exactly bend down and help him up.”

“Fine, I will help him to his feet and then he is yours to handle.” Still ignoring the absolutely distressed crying they were talking over, he went to the side of the kid who was crumpled into a ball on the ground and bent to be closer to him. “Stop being a weak child and get up. A fall from that height surely cannot have been that bad.” All he got in response was an unintelligible scream that couldn’t have even begun to have been understood, and he sighed. “Why would I have assumed you would have made this easy for me? Everything with you is always so difficult.”

The problem with what had happened was simple: based on the way he had fallen, Andres had landed the wrong way on his arm, causing him to scream and cry about it. However, no one there had expected the damage to have been nearly as bad as it was, especially not the one crying, because when he was standing and he saw what had happened, he fell over and had to be caught at the last second by his unwilling-to-help father who hadn’t yet seen what the matter was. In fact, he didn’t even think to look until after he heard Heather let out a string of curses and shocked words at it, and then it wasn’t so much looking to see what was causing his son so much pain as it was to see what had made his wife react like that.

Whatever bone (or bones) it was that was sticking out of the boy’s arm, it was definitely not how it was supposed to look, and it was not something that going inside and wrapping up was going to help. And since looking at it was starting to fill Alejandro not with a sense of rage like he had figured, but instead a sense of regret for letting it happen, he knew that he wasn’t going to be the one who ultimately had to fix this one. So, like he always seemed to do when it was Andres involved, he let the “better” parent take charge in the situation, even though she seemed to be angrier about it than he was.

With good reason, though, as she repeated several times in the few minutes there were between then and them leaving. There was barely a week before they were supposed to be taking decent family pictures, and how decent could they be if one of the kids had his arm wrapped in a cast? But there was no denying that it was just how it was going to have to be, especially not after one lovely afternoon-to-late night spent in the emergency room having to deal with the repercussions of falling almost ten feet out of a tree. And that was enough to make an already-unstable family start to fracture more.

* * *

Regardless of all the bad things happening when the big day rolled around, there was still an air of excitement when it came to getting everyone ready for pictures. This was a household built around the love of two vain people, after all, and they had passed down their obsession with making sure they looked their best to all of their kids, even if some inherited more of it than others. For instance, on that morning, one of the boys spent just a few minutes making sure his hair looked fine and that his clothes were nice enough, but one of the others took what felt like hours making sure he was as cute as he could be. A third took somewhere in between the two, but needed help finding clothes that were appropriate for the occasion.

Then there was Andres, who normally would have been the slowest and most pristine of the four, but due to his dominant arm being immobilized by a rather ugly-looking splint, he wasn’t able to really do much getting ready on his own. That left him at the mercy of his brothers, since his parents were busy getting themselves prepared for the day, and although his brothers did know a thing or two about looking nice, none of them were exactly able to do the most important thing that the oldest boy needed; because of this, when the family gathered to leave, his hair was left hanging loose and un-brushed, and would have remained as such if it hadn’t bothered his mom to see it that way.

Although, if it had been up to his father, he would have just had it cut to a more manageable length, rather than pulling it back into a braid. But it was no time for new haircuts, as they had a fairly important date with a photo studio that needed to be met, lest they disappoint the extended family with a lack of good holiday cards. “I hope you look back at this and think it’s the most ridiculous idea you’ve ever let us get suckered into.” Said with a sigh and a look into one of the car mirrors, Heather did not seem pleased at all to be having to go along with this event. “I mean, pictures! Great! Best idea ever! But _all_ of us? No thank you. There are two problems here, and I don’t think anyone wants to see either of them.”

“I disagree with you on one of those two ‘problems’ you are referring to, although the second one I can agree with. Instead of having a nice family picture to share with everyone, we will be sending out one that be ruined by the carelessness of someone.” Without even naming anyone, it was clear who and what Alejandro was referring to, made all the more definite by the almost disgusted tone he spoke with. “I am sure that, if we ask nicely, we can manage to have him hidden in the back to prevent anyone from seeing his arm, and that would keep the amount of questions about it to a minimum.”

“I’d say that’s a great plan, but how would that work? They’d need to have some really tall stand to make him be seen, and I don’t think I want to risk the chance of him getting hurt again.” She turned to look to the back row of seats, over the not-very eager faces of the two youngest kids, to see what exactly the child who was being talked about was doing. To no one’s surprise at all, he was facing out the window, trying his hardest to not pay attention to what was going on in the vehicle around him. “Maybe we can make it sound like he got hurt doing something, well, interesting, not something dumb like it was. Your family likes sports, maybe we could say it was a sporting thing!”

“We are not lying to everyone about what he did to earn that splint. In fact, we are either going to not let anyone see it, or we are going to leave him out of the picture. Those are our two options here, and that is just how it is going to be.” Despite the muttered protests of the person seated next to him, there wasn’t any way that he was going to change his mind on the matter unless something forced him to change it. There was no way he was going to show people that this family he had was as broken as it was, because he just wanted to get bragging rights that he had adorable children and a beautiful wife, not the questions about what happened to one of the kids. This was, of course, ignoring the fact that there were already going to be enough questions coming in their direction as to why they were adding another kid to this bunch. But those were good questions, ones that showed that people actually cared about their lives. Questions about what put a kid into a splint were not favorable, and needed to be avoided at all costs.

There was just one issue with that, and that was that it was going to be impossible to mask that news without leaving one kid out of the picture completely. And while everyone present knew that Andres would love to be left out, it just didn’t make sense, and getting him hidden behind everyone else would take too much risk to pull off. So really there was no way to get around him having broken his arm, and it was just going to have to be a second question in the response cards that were already going to be asking about the new baby. No big deal at the end of the day, and certainly not something to make a big deal out of.

Except, well, everything that ever happened involving that boy had a big deal made out of it, and family pictures were no exception. Sure, he may have been the oldest, and he may have had to have gone through the routine more times than any of his brothers because of that, but he had no desire to be there, something he made very clear when they got to the photo studio and he refused to get out of the car. Yes, he had been subjected to listening to his father talk nothing but negatively about him, and he knew that it was because of _him_ that things weren’t going to go perfectly, but he was normally the most compliant of the kids when it came to these sorts of situations. Yet he refused to get out, even after his brothers had and his parents were ready to go in and get things over with.

Much like with the aftermath of the tree incident, handling this got left in the hands of the parent who supposedly liked him more. “You’ve got to come in and do this,” he was told by his mom’s calm voice, although he could see watching her that she was quickly losing her ability to be calm. “I know, you don’t want to, but you have to. Trust me, it’ll be easier if you just come in, get it over with, and forget about it. That’s what I’m going to do.”

“Except we’ll be here for hours, and you know that my father won’t make it easy for me. Maybe for the others, but not for me.” Andres looked at his right arm, the one wrapped in the absolutely ugly splint, and shuddered. “He’ll probably threaten to break the other one.”

“He would not. You don’t like him, I get it, but you don’t talk bad about him like that.” There was more evidence of the calmness fleeing from how Heather was approaching this situation, as she had begun to get snappish and the end of her statement. “Now get out and let’s please get this over with.”

“I’m not doing it.” It hurt him to be defiant against the mom he loved so much, but there was only so much Andres could tolerate, and he wasn’t going to subject himself to what could be likened to torture when he could easily just stay out in the car until they were done.

However, he didn’t expect for said mom who also loved him so much to completely drop all attempts to be nice and start trying to get forceful to get her way. “You are doing this. I don’t care if I have to drag you in there kicking and screaming, but you are going in there and being a part of this family picture day. If I have to do it, you’re doing it with me.”

“No, I’m not.” He shook his head, before watching to see her eyes narrow at him. “I mean it, mom. I’m not going in there. Besides, you wouldn’t drag me in there. I know you don’t actually mean that.”

In the blink of an eye, she reached in and grabbed his splinted arm, causing him to yelp a bit in pain, and she pulled it towards her. “Looks like I do mean it, huh?” she asked, seeing him quickly unbuckle himself and move closer to her so that she wasn’t going to be able to pull him around. “That’s why you don’t talk like that to me. Got it?” He nodded rapidly, and she let go of him. “Good to see you do have some sort of sense in that head of yours. I thought I was going to have to break out your full name there for a moment, and that’s just not something I want to do to you.”

“I’d rather hear that than have you hurt me like this,” he replied, as he finally got out of the car. “But I guess this one wouldn’t always hurt. That would.”

“Which is why that’s the last resort. I know what gets you to do things, kid. We spend enough time together for me to have learned a thing or two about you.” After closing the door to the car and making sure it was properly locked up, Heather took a moment to flip her son’s braid so that it was hanging over his shoulder rather than down his back like normal before they walked inside the studio, just to show that she wasn’t too angry with him about what had happened.

But for every bit angry she wasn’t, there was someone who was nearly raging at the fact that there had been such a show of disobedience. That was why, when they did get inside, they were stormed at by the still-collected, but visibly angered Alejandro, who immediately pointed a finger straight into his son’s face, causing the boy to try and hide behind his mom. “I cannot believe you would so much as think to ruin this day more than you already have,” he said through clenched teeth. “First you cause us to need special accommodations for your arm, and then you choose to try to not participate? What is wrong with you?”

“Leave him alone, I’ve already dealt with him. He’s going to be on his best behavior from now on, and he doesn’t need you yelling at him about it.” Although she spoke like she was protecting the boy, there was no real protection in what she was doing, which was getting him from behind her so that he could face his father without interruption. “Let’s just ignore everything that’s happened and try to make this painless, shall we?”

But when she saw that he was trembling as he was pushed into being in a one-sided stare down, it dawned on her that maybe painless wasn’t going to be possible here. No matter what, there were some things that weren’t going to be smoothed over just to make other things easier, and all the hatred between those two was just one of those things, no matter how sad of a reality that was. She couldn’t exactly get back in the middle of things, though, not when she saw that the other kids were beginning to cause trouble in their moment without parental supervision, and that trouble happened to involve one of the employees of the photo studio.

Or, rather, it wasn’t so much trouble as it was that the employee was trying to already convince the kids to be on their best behavior to make the time go by faster. Crying children in pictures was not a flattering look, and if it could be avoided at all costs the employees liked it, which meant that this poor soul was giving candies and treats to the three kids he had gathered around him. As long as it was done in the name of making them behave, there just couldn’t be a problem with it, could there be? That was the hope, anyway, and for the first hour of the session it seemed to work. The three boys who had been appeased with sweets were compliant to every pose and picture that they were asked to take, and the one who wasn’t only complied because of the glares he would occasionally get if he so much as tried to refuse to do as told. It seemed to be working out for the best.

And then the boys were expected to sit and be patient while their parents took just a few pictures together. While it should have been easy for them to wait the little amount of time it would take, it wasn’t, not when they didn’t have someone sitting with them telling them to behave, and no amount of candy would get them to not give in to their natures of being complete horrors. First it was them fighting over who got the last of the candy. Then, after everything was interrupted by the photographer having to give them more candy, it was Trevin deciding that he didn’t want to keep sitting where he was told to and trying to make a break for the door, and although it was his brothers that chased after him it did cause a disruption because until he was dragged back to his seat, the pictures didn’t continue. After that it was him once again deciding he didn’t want to be there, but rather than running for the door he ran to his parents, stopping them once more because these were meant to be kid-free pictures, not ones with one kid in them.

But nothing, not even more kids running towards freedom, could top the disaster that occurred right after it became time for the kids to get back in the picture for the shots of the entire family. It started when the child roundup began, and only three of them were present—and the one who was missing was not the usual suspect. “Uh, I think Ryden said he was gonna wash his hands,” Andres said when he was asked where the middle of his younger brothers had disappeared to. “I think. Maybe. Wasn’t really paying attention.”

“He did!” Sergio chimed in, miming a hand-washing motion. “He spilled candy and he was sticky and yucky! He had to go wash up!”

“And you let him go by himself? Why does that sound like it’s a terrible idea?” Looking at the two boys who had spoken with a wary look, Heather had to forget that one of the kids was missing when the third one present made yet another run for the door, but she was able to stop him quickly in his tracks when she yelled after him, “Trevin Christopher, take one more step towards that door and you’ll regret it!” He froze and turned to face his mom, not used to hearing both parts of his name in such a way, and when she saw his front side she had to cover her mouth and gasp. He had candy all over his face and shirt. Which meant, if the other kid had disappeared because he had spilled candy, he was probably in even dirtier of a state. And dirty kids were not going to be in the family pictures, no matter how stupid of an idea she already thought they were.

To make a long and very involved story shorter than it needed to be, the missing kid was _beyond_ dirty, and a small amount of soap and water wasn’t going to fix matters. Somehow the boys had managed to get Ryden’s shirt so sticky and dirty that he wasn’t going to be able to get it cleaned without a small miracle, and that meant that he needed a replacement before any more pictures with him in them could be taken. And since there was already shirt-replacing happening with him, there wasn’t any point in putting in the effort to clean up the mess that had been made on Trevin’s clothing, because why spend the time doing that when he too could just get a clean shirt? It wasn’t the best choice, because there had been some sort of color-coordination going on with the boys and now two of them weren’t matching with their older brothers, but it was what had to be done.

When everything was finally taken care of and back to working order (if that’s what it could be referred to, anyway), it had been over an hour since everything had gone downhill and they were just wasting time away now. All they needed was one good family picture to show for all of this, and now it was their time to make that happen. As every adult present knew, be it the parents or the photographer, it was much easier said than done. So much as trying to get all four boys to sit on the platform was a battle that would never be won, and that meant that some sacrifices were going to have to be made. No matter how much someone suggested that one of the kids became tucked away in the back, the idea was ignored because lining the kids up in age order just seemed like the better option—and, as was repeated several times, the amount of platforms it would take to get Andres to be able to be seen over his brothers would be dangerous, not to mention impossible because it was already taking a fair number of them to get the two adults to the same height.

The struggle became getting the four boys to sit together with no fighting or bickering, which was incredibly difficult when two of the boys, having already been in trouble for the candy, wanted nothing to do with each other. After the sixth time of trying to get them seated properly in age order, and the sixth time of Ryden pushing Trevin off the platform, a new plan had to be devised. But simply sticking the youngest child somewhere else in the lineup didn’t work, as he threw off some sort of imaginary balance that the photographer insisted there needed to be. To keep with the sorting by age, that meant that he needed to be kept on that side of the picture, but not sitting.

It wasn’t exactly the “ideal” way to have things get done, but it was seen as the only way it could happen, and so the kid ended up being held for the picture. Did it ruin how everything turned out? Not in the slightest, as it did give the end result some sort of understood balance (something that pleased the photographer immensely). But just because of where one kid was positioned did not change the fact that of the six people in the picture, only four of them were smiling, and the two who weren’t had no reason to smile for such an occasion. After all, if there was any kid who didn’t want to be there, it was Andres, and Ryden was more well-known for his pouts than any smiles. It was understood by almost everyone that it was how it was going to happen, and there wasn’t any use fighting that, no matter how much the guy behind the camera thought it looked bad.

There was one other person who did find the end result a bit disappointing, but he already knew that it was going to be a disappointment. That wasn’t going to stop him from saying something about it, though. “If this picture gets sent out to the family in this state, everyone will think we are running some sort of madhouse and insist that we teach you children some sort of manners or respect.” Looking from the picture that the photographer had pulled up on his screen over to where everyone was still posing as if more pictures were going to be taken, Alejandro shook his head. “But I see that there is no other choice, especially with how thrilled you all seem to still be here.”

“Is it my face?” Ryden loudly asked, his expression changing from its usual pout to a big grin. “’Cuz if it is, I wanna say that—“

“Whatever you have to say right now, Ryden James, I do not want to hear it. In fact, I would prefer it if you ceased speaking until we return home, because you have done nothing but make this more difficult than it has needed to be.” The bluntness of the statement wiped the grin off the child’s face, but what had just been said to him was nothing even close to what was coming to his brother. “As for someone else here, he needs to explain himself and his choice to make the face that he did.”

His eyes going wide, Andres covered his mouth with his good hand. “I-I didn’t know I made a face. I was just doing what I do for pictures.”

“No, you typically smile for pictures. But today, you decided to show everyone that you had no desire to be here, and for what? To anger me?” If they weren’t in public, what would have followed would have been a father charging at his son to intimidate him, and the boy knew that was what could have happened. So when he didn’t see his father moving towards him, he went into a defensive position—and forgot not only that the arm he was moving was in a heavily-wrapped splint, but that his mom was standing right behind him, and he hit her with enough force to make her give a small scream. Once he realized what he had done, he tried to look back at her to make sure she was okay, but he was stopped by the inevitable act of his father getting to him and grabbing his shoulders to keep him stationary. “Now you decide to take your ill feelings out on your mother? What is wrong with you?”

“I didn’t mean to! I didn’t…” The boy started shaking, his eyes wider than before and welling up with tears. “Father, you know I wouldn’t mean to hurt her…”

“Yet you did. Just like you gave one of the nastiest expressions you are capable of and managed to ruin things today, just like you always do. I am _ashamed_ to not only call you my son, but to share a name with you.” Letting go of his shoulders and stepping back, Alejandro did nothing but give a slight shake of his head at the boy and how he was starting to cry. “Oh, do not try to get sympathy from everyone when you have been nothing but trouble all day. We have no reason to feel bad for you.”

“Except you’re acting like he killed me and all he did was startle me with a bit of a hit. No big deal.” Now wrapping her arm around the crying one and trying to comfort him a bit, Heather raised her eyebrows in concern at how there had been some serious overreaction to what had happened. “Besides, if it was a big deal, you should have come to me first, not going to him and making him feel bad for it.”

“Yes, but if there were something truly wrong, you would have said it. How else am I to teach him a lesson if he knows you are fine? There is no way to do it, and so I had to make that choice there. I am sure you understand, yes?” The way that Alejandro looked at Heather was such a gaze that he was trying to use to get her to agree with him, and after a moment or two, she rolled her eyes and sighed, giving in to his insistence. When that happened, and she admitted that she understood, that was when Andres decided he was done with his family for the moment, worming his way out of his mom’s arms and hopping off the platform, headed straight to the door. Although no one was exactly thrilled with him, especially not his father, it was that man who called him out on what he was doing: “Excuse me, but where do you think you are going?”

“Outside so I don’t have to be with people who hate me,” Andres replied, stomping a bit to make him seem more angry than upset. “Just get me when you’re leaving.”

It took a moment of stunned silence, where the realization of what he had just done sunk in with everyone present, but when Alejandro had a fitting reaction for it, he made sure to act on it. “I do not think you are going to enjoy this decision when we get home later, but if this is how you want to behave, then so be it. Just know that you are in very serious trouble, mister Alejandro Andres Burromuerto, and you are _never_ going to get to forget that.”

While the boy screamed in anger from hearing his full name as he exited the building, he knew that he was going to get what he deserved. And the two parents looked to each other, knowing that before there could even be any punishing going on, there was still the need of ordering all the pictures they had spent the last many hours taking, even though they weren’t going to be perfect. But the best picture out of them all was that “terrible” family picture, with the unimpressed faces and held child and all, and with how perfect it ended up actually being, had the fighting been necessary in the first place?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize that this was almost a week late! To make up for it, have some visual art, drawn by yours truly!  
> Now for the bad news. Chapter 8 hasn't even been started yet, and that means I don't exactly know when it'll be ready for posting. What does this mean for the fic? Well, that there will be a week or two of hiatus and then the finale. Does that suck? Yes, it does. Is there anything I can do about it? Not without sacrificing the story, and trust me, you'll want to stick around for the ending. (:


	8. The Same Old Kind of Thing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes, when things seem like they're going to go one way, they go in a completely different direction. What does that have to do with sleepless nights and a second gender reveal party? Everything in the world, actually.

There was no such thing as a full night of sleep in that house for either of the adults, and there hadn’t been for years, not with all the children that they had around them. Some nights, the four kids would behave and try to let their parents rest for once—only for the unborn child to cause problems, giving the night the same result as all the others. But on one particular night where the stars must have aligned in the perfect way, everything seemed to be absolutely perfect and maybe, just maybe, for once there would be a night where both of them slept through the night with no interruption.

If it hadn’t been for what events were meant to follow the next afternoon, they just might have, but due to the fact that the resolution to that fight that had happened over Thanksgiving dinner was finally upon them, it wasn’t going to happen. And that was why, in the early morning hours after being shaken awake, Alejandro was playing the role of a loving and supportive husband as he listened to Heather nearly crying about how she didn’t want the following day’s events to happen, that she wasn’t ready to see him be right yet again, that she just didn’t want things to go the way they inevitably were going to. While he didn’t appreciate the fact that this was happening while he could have been getting some beauty sleep, he did take comfort in her saying that he was right, and that she knew it, and the revelry they were going to have to endure in a matter of hours was nothing more than a delusional choice and a waste of time.

Or, at least, the words that were being spoken through almost-tears amounted to something along those lines. He wasn’t really sure, only being mostly awake for the event, and whenever he was expected to give input into her problems, he made sure to remind her that he wasn’t fully aware of what was happening. “I do not understand why you feel the need to get into this at this early hour,” he said, stifling a yawn as he did. “By all means, you are allowed to admit to me that you know I am right and always have been, but why must it happen now?”

“Because right now’s when I realized it, okay?” she snapped back, clearly not anywhere near as tired as he was. “Or not exactly right now, but earlier. When we were talking about what all is going to happen tomorrow, or later today, or whenever it is! It just kind of hit me that you’ve always been right about all of this, and I’ve just been so stupid to even think to deny it, not just to myself, but to anyone who’s asked about it.”

“Oh, do not consider yourself stupid for wanting to believe in one of your dreams, even if it has been a foolish decision on your part.” Even though it was dark, and all he could see was outlines of everything, he knew that she was rolling her eyes through her tears. “Now let us just go to sleep and let fate take its determined course when the time comes. Which, unless you want to call off the celebration and solve this problem right now, will be later.”

“I’m not calling anything off just because I’ve realized it’s dumb. We’re still going to do this, in case I’m somehow right in the matter.” A deep sigh followed a few sniffles. “I know I’m not right, but you know what? That’s okay. It’s just how things were meant to be.”

A silence fell between them, and he took it as a go-ahead to try and fall back asleep. But as he started to let his eyes close and return to his slumber, a forceful backhand connected with his arm, jolting him back awake. “What was that for, _mi amor_?” he asked, rubbing at where she had smacked him. “You stopped speaking, and I am quite tired.”

“You can be tired all you want, but you aren’t sleeping yet. Since we’re here, and both awake—“ he groaned and she smacked him again, getting him to apologize a few times in Spanish “—we’re going to take the time here to discuss a few things. I’m not just crying because of realizing you’re right, just so you know.”

“Yes, yes, how would I assume that you are only crying because of that? This is not our first time going through this experience, and even then your uncontrollable bouts of crying did not come as much of a surprise to either of us.” His tired chuckles were quickly silenced by the outline of her hand appearing in his line of sight. “Oh? Are you saying that there is a reason outside of you being with child that is causing this dramatic display at this hour?”

“Of course there’s a reason besides that. Why wouldn’t there be? You know that if that was the case, I wouldn’t force you to be awake because I can handle some stupid mood changes. No, we’re going to lay here like real adults and talk about how you’ve seriously got to fix something, and quick.” Now that his eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, he could better see that she was on her side, looking at him with her head propped up on one hand, as the other hand was still hovering over him slightly. “There are going to be a _lot_ of people over here for this ‘party’ and I don’t want you making our oldest child looking like he’s terrible in front of them. You got that?”

“It is not my choice to make him look terrible. He does it rather excellently on his own, if you ask me.” Fully expecting to get smacked (and rightfully so) for that response, so Alejandro was surprised when instead he was given a simple sigh in return. “What, do you not mind that I just said that he is very good at making all who see him dislike him? I would have figured you would have taken a lot of offense to that.”

“I do take a lot of offense to that, actually. I just know that trying to convince you to see him in a better light isn’t going to end well, so why should I try?” She sighed again, resting her hand on him and gently tapping him with her fingers, as he looked at her with the full intent to answer her question, but she wasn’t meaning for him to answer her. “I should try because he’s not a bad kid, and you need to realize that. He doesn’t deserve all the hatred you throw at him, and while I know you don’t care, it’s starting to really get to him.”

He shook his head, the sound of his hair hitting the pillow the only indication that that’s what he was doing. “What do you expect me to do about it? Go up to him and tell him that I do not find him as much of a failure to our family as I let on? I have a feeling that doing that will just cause him to complain to you, which will lead to this happening again. I understand that you want me to fix this, but…”

“But what? Come on, tell me what sort of excuse you’ve got for this. I know you can fix it, somehow, because it’s you. That’s what you do. Manipulate people into thinking better of you, even though at the end of the day everyone knows you’re terrible.” Patting him a few times before pulling her hand away and tucking herself up to go to sleep, there was one last thing Heather felt that she needed to say: “I know it’s probably hard for you to even imagine being nice to the kid, but you can do it. If there’s anyone out there who can go from being a complete asshole to being a great person, it’s you.”

He couldn’t come up with any response to that, and even if he had been able to, she was asleep too quickly for him to have been able to say it. Laying there in the unusual silence of the middle of the night, he was really able to think about what he had just heard, and as he thought on it, he realized that she was completely right. Something needed to be done about the situation that had been going on years longer than necessary, and it needed to be done sooner rather than later. That meant that, instead of taking advantage of the rare peaceful night for some sleeping, he stayed up trying to come up with the best plan possible to get his oldest child to not hate him to the extent that he did. There was also the occasional pause to listen to what had to be the wind outside, making noises that, to him, sounded much like both his and his wife’s names were being called.

* * *

Mornings when people were coming to the house were always the hardest, especially in terms of getting everyone ready and eager for what was to happen. For three of the kids, after the well-behaved night they just had, they were more than happy to go along with every order that they were given. For the other child, the one who was only expected to be the difficult one, there was no such luck. In fact, after he had gotten his brothers up and ready for the day, he had disappeared back into his bedroom, unwilling to interact with anyone else unless he absolutely had to. After being asked nicely multiple times by his mom to come out of his room to no response, there was only one person who could possibly give getting him out a shot, and as if things were falling perfectly into place, he took that chance.

Knocking to ask for permission to enter? That was one thing that wasn’t going to happen in this situation, no matter how polite and correct of a gesture it was. The sound of his door flying open visibly startled Andres where he lay on the floor, and he scrambled to get up, shut off the music he was listening to, and back himself up against the wall to get as far from his father as he could. “Uh, h-hi there,” he stuttered, trying not to look at his father at all. “I’m in trouble, aren’t I?”

“I would not call it trouble, but we do need to speak about some things.” Closing the door behind him, Alejandro made his way to his son’s bed and sat down on it, motioning for the boy to sit next to him. After a tense moment or two, he did, making sure to keep his injured arm, still in its cast, as far from potential danger as he could manage. “Why are you being so hesitant to come near me?”

“Because you don’t like me and I know you’re in here to punish me,” Andres replied, giving all the honesty he could. “I bet this is something my dear mom set up, to get you to come in here and punish me for…” His words lost their momentum when he saw that his father was looking at him with an unsure look, as if he didn’t know what was being referred to. “Great. Mom did keep her word and didn’t tell you about what happened at school, and here I go, telling you all about it.”

“I must say, you have made me curious as to what could possibly have happened at school when you are such a bright child, but if you felt that I had no place in the matter, I will keep it that way. Besides, I am sure that your levelheaded mother will better at handling whatever situation there is.” Not trying to pry into the situation that was clearly worrying the boy was one of his ideas for making things between them better, and when he saw the smallest of smiles appear on his lips, Alejandro knew he was doing something right. And that meant it was time to get answers on what had brought him into the room in the first place. “So, might I ask why you retreated back into your room today when you knew that there were things to be done before guests begin arriving?”

The boy’s shoulders slumped, and what flicker of happiness there had been in his face disappeared. “I don’t want to be seen as a failure by everyone, so I came back in here because at least in here I’m not reminded that I’m bad. Or, at least, not usually. You’ll change that though, won’t you, father?”

“What? No, I am not here to punish you. In fact, what I have come here for is to clear up some things between us, before the guests get here. I do not have any intentions to make you feel bad at all.” There was no return of cheer in the boy’s face, and that meant that more reassurance needed to be made before things turned ugly. “While it may have seemed like I was going to scold you for coming in here, I was not. It is simply a fortunate turn of events that you came in here so that we could discuss things where no one would overhear us.”

“So you’re definitely not punishing me, then. You never punish me when no one’s around to watch how great at being a terrible father you are.” The voice that Andres used to speak was cold and harsh, one that didn’t sound like it would ever come from the mouth of a child, and it caught Alejandro by surprise. When the kid continued talking, his voice had gone back to normal, and he acted like he hadn’t just changed personalities completely. “I don’t know what you’re gonna say, but before you say it, I just want you to know that unless it’s really good, I’m still not gonna like you. You can’t expect me to.”

“I know I cannot, but there is no sense in not trying to get you to like me at least a little bit.” Raising his hand to show two fingers placed slightly apart, symbolizing just how little respect and whatnot he expected to come out of this conversation, it struck him as odd when the boy moved his own hand to mimic the gesture, with fingers more apart. “Oh, do you want to try for that much? I am not sure that would be possible with what time we have…”

“Anything’s possible, I guess, if you really want it to be. Which if you’re being nice like this, maybe you do want it to be like that.” Andres looked at his fingers, then at his father’s, before giving a small laugh. “I think I’d like having a father who actually treats me like I’m not some waste of his time, even though I’m just like him.”

That was when he looked up from their hands and straight into his father’s eyes. If there was one thing that had always been prominent about this child’s appearance, it was that he looked like a perfect mirror image of his father, the only exception being the long braid that his hair was always in. And at that moment, that truth rang true, the two of them looking at each other as if the other was a mirror that showed them at a different stage of life—and it was almost surreal when they both smiled at the other. For every moment that passed, what felt like a million thoughts crossed through Alejandro’s mind, each one about a different aspect about the strangeness of the situation he found himself in. Hadn’t he come into the room trying to fix things with this child that he had alienated so badly, and yet there they were, showing that they were very much one in the same?

He had every intention to comment on that, to make a statement on the matter, but Andres beat him to speaking, and he wasn’t going to throw away such progress for the sake of getting a thought out. “It’s really great, knowing that I’m so much like you, no matter how much you’ve always said that I’m more like my mom. Sure, I’ve always liked her more, but that’s because she just gets me. She likes me wanting to express my feminine side.” He closed his eyes, exchanging his smile for a smirk as he did, and when he spoke again, it wasn’t with his normal voice but with that rough one from before. “But, you’d know what that’s like, don’t you?”

Hearing such words, spoken with such confidence, coming from the boy’s mouth was odd enough, but what really got more thoughts flowing was the fact that what was said was completely true. There was no doubt that Alejandro was well-versed in the ways of expressing his feminine side, although he went about it in much more discreet ways than this boy ever had. Which led him to wonder, how did he know that? “I do very well know what it is like to be in touch with beauty and whatnot, but you knowing that is news to me. I doubt that your mother told you this, because it would make you resent me more, so where did you find out about it?”

“Doesn’t matter. After all, I’m just like you. If I do it, you have to have to.” Moving his casted arm a bit, the smirk on Andres’ face got a bit bigger. “Except this. I think this was more me wanting attention, less me being like you. I’m too young to do what you did for attention, aren’t I? Can’t go be on a show at the age I am, all to get people to see me for me, not for the family around me.”

“How do you know these things?” He figured he wouldn’t get an answer, but there was no harm in asking, especially since the boy was saying things that no one should have knowledge of. There would always be assumptions, but he wouldn’t have been speaking like he had been told this like it was hard fact if it was a mere assumption. “Did someone say something to you about me when I was younger, because I would know if I had, and if I had I would not have brought up anything of that sort. What I did was not for attention, but for honor and breaking myself out of the shadow of my family, yes, but how are you aware of that decision?”

“Sometimes when I’d tell mom about how much you hate me, she’d let me know some of your secrets to make me feel better. She always said that having things to gossip about made her feel better about things, and I guess it works.” The smirk faded back to the smile it had started as, and Andres turned his head to break the chain of them staring at each other. “But I didn’t ever say anything she told me out loud until right now. It just felt wrong to think about saying any of this to anyone but you.”

The amount of seriousness he spoke with made it seem like he was telling the truth, which made Alejandro feel some amount of pride about this boy. Sure, he was a disobedient, deviant-behaviored child, but if there was one good thing about him (aside from his looks), it was that he didn’t have the heart to be a gossiper. “I thank you for feeling that way, because I would hate for my secrets to be out to the world. It is bad enough that several private matters in my life are for the world to know, so knowing that not everything is the business of strangers sits well with me.”

“Yeah, yeah, I did a good thing. Not something I’m used to hearing from you.” Laughing once more, Andres turned once more to face his father, but when he did he wasn’t himself, at least, not in his father’s eyes. There wasn’t any room to say that the boy was almost a mirror image anymore—because now it was like looking into a life-sized old picture of the man looking at him. And when he spoke, it wasn’t with either of the voices he had been using, but rather a third, one that only appeared in Alejandro’s thoughts when he reflected back on his behavior when he was young. “Not something I’m used to hearing from anyone, not in this family.”

There were two reactions that could have been made there, each one unique in its own way, but neither of them felt correct to Alejandro. The first one was to question what had been said, ignoring the fact that it was something that he could vividly remember himself thinking over and over again when his parents or brothers would give him any sort of praise, simply because this child had definitely had one parents who would compliment him whenever needed. The second was to question the way it was said, keeping in mind that he knew that voice very well because it was the voice he thought of his younger self with, the appearance of the child matching those memories. On their own, neither choice felt right, but there was no way to get them together without the chance that one of the two questions would have been answered. What did happen was a moment of silence, as what was going on tried to sink in, to no avail.

And just like that, everything went back to normal, or so it seemed. The only difference was that, rather than smiling and looking like his father’s perfect replica, Andres seemed panicked, back to his normal self. “Hey, father, are you okay?” he was asking, his voice very much his own, shaking with worry. “Y-you were saying something about you wanting me to spend more time with you, and then you just sort of spaced out. Did being nice to me really take that much out of you?”

“No, not at all. Not getting much sleep must have affected me this time more than I realized.” It was a lie, but there weren’t words to describe what really had just happened. Was he hallucinating about the conversation they had been having, while a different one had been taking place? “Refresh me on what we were talking about before, so that I can make sure I am where I need to be.”

Andres gave a small nod. “Right. Well, uh, I said that mom liked me expressing my feminine side, and you said that you did too, which was really weird because you don’t! You hate me being more girly! But then you said _why_ you didn’t let me know that, and it made me feel better about things. Not much better, but a little bit.”

“Remind me what that reason was, please.”

“Spacing out must really have hit you hard, father, but okay. You said the reason was because when you were little, your parents made sure that you and your brothers were in touch with beauty and stuff, and you thought that was what made you such a ‘bad’ person, so when I started showing interest in that same stuff, you wanted to keep me out of it. But I broke the rules and went for it anyway, and you hated me for it until you realized that I was like you anyway, so why fight things anymore?” After taking a few seconds to make sure that he hadn’t forgotten anything, the boy gave a bigger nod. “And then you were saying that you’d love for me to spend more time with you, but that’s when you kind of went blank and scared me for a minute.”

None of the previous conversation had ever happened, it seemed, but with no idea where to go in the one that had occurred, Alejandro needed a way out of the situation. But how was he going to manage that, especially when this was the first time that he could think of where he and Andres were actually getting along? “I do apologize for doing that. Like I said, it must have something to do with not getting very much sleep at all last night. How about we resume this conversation later, once I am more rested and aware of what I am saying?” He hoped the boy would buy into that, and he did, excitedly replying that he would love to get to talk more later, especially if it meant that they’d start to rebuild bridges that seemed to have been burned without a good reason.

Never once did the question of when resting would be able to happen be raised, because Andres was too busy rushing out of his room with spirits higher than they had ever been to realize that there logically wasn’t any time for that. And it had only been suggested as a way to get out of the sticky situation that Alejandro had found himself in, so he had no idea of how it would really happen. All he did know was that something weird was going on, either in reality or in his head, and he needed answers in what little time there was before the festivities began, and if that meant laying down for just a few minutes to rack his mind for any solutions, so be it.

On his way out of that room (which, as he thought about it, he really hadn’t ever spent much time in, possibly in relation to what Andres had said about not being punished in there) and back to his own, the wall of family pictures had to be passed. While looking at the beautiful images of the family he had worked so hard to create and support always made him feel proud of what he had accomplished, seeing them at that moment created a fear deep inside of him, one that turned to a worry he couldn’t shake. Looking at the newest picture, the one that there had been so much struggle to take, several problems that Alejandro had never encountered before that very moment reared their ugly head, and he found his feet seemingly cemented to the floor before the picture, unable to move until he solved these problems; it wouldn’t have been an issue to stay there and figure things out, had he not been hearing his name be called by someone in the distance, which the need to see what he was being called for weighed on him just as much as _forgetting the names of his kids_.

He could look at their faces, which he noticed really only looked like his and Heather’s faces smashed together with different features of their prominent, but no names came to him, aside from the name of the child he had just been speaking too. Even then, was that because the kid was beginning to mean something to him, or was it because they shared the same name? After trying so hard to remember what they were named, and failing but chalking it up to being so tired, he moved on to one of the other issues he found with the picture that he never before had noticed. As far as he could think back, his face in the picture had looked like it always did, but now it was blurry and off, as if the picture itself wasn’t sure what he looked like, and the same went for Heather’s face. He could vividly see her in his mind, but what he could see wasn’t reflected in the picture.

However, there was something reflected in the glass that caught his attention, amidst the confusion of what was going on with the image and him still hearing his name being called. As he focused on that reflection, the picture behind it seemed to fade away, turning what was inside the frame into a mirror, which was showing him what he had looked like years before, back when there weren’t any children to worry about and the only people living in the house were him and his beautiful bride. Was this a sign that he wanted to go back to those times and live it all again? Of course not! So many wonderful things had happened in the time that had passed that going through it a second time would ruin the enjoyment, and besides, there was no way to go back and change things. He was just tired, and his mind was playing tricks on him. This was simply a reminder that it was the day where they inevitably replicated an event from almost nine years to the day beforehand.

He found the strength to pull himself away from the picture, but when he took a step in the direction he needed to go he didn’t find himself a step closer to his bedroom, but rather a step into a crowded room filled with every single person he knew of from that stupid reality TV show that had changed his life forever. No one seemed to notice his presence, so whoever had been calling for him wasn’t in there, but what he did notice about all of them was that they all looked like they hadn’t aged a day in the years that had passed, which, judging by his reflection that he had just been staring at, he really hadn’t either. The atmosphere in the room felt more like a birthday party than what the celebration really was for, which made him wonder if anyone around really knew how things were going to go down. There was going to be cake, like a birthday party, and there was going to be presents, also like a birthday party, but there wasn’t any celebrating of someone’s years in the world. Everyone was gathered for the results of a contest that everyone knew how it was going to end since it began, and there was nothing exciting about that.

In fact, had this not already have been planned for months, he would have loved to have called it off just because he didn’t need a reminder that his family had some sort of curse on it in terms of births. There was nothing to cheer for in relation to that, yet it had become a spectacle that people wanted to come and celebrate, and it, on top of everything that had already happened that morning, didn’t sit well within him at all. It just didn’t, and when he felt like something was going to be a disaster, chances were that he was right about it.

A hand latched itself to his shoulder, when he hadn’t realized someone was standing next to him to begin with, startling him until he saw that someone was indeed there. “What’s got you acting so weird today? You’ve been staring at everyone for a while now, and it’s really starting to freak people out.” With all the odd things that had happened so far that day, what Heather was telling him was completely expected, but as she continued to talk he realized that things were a lot worse than believed. “I mean, you walked in here looking like you were on something, which got Sierra super worried, which meant that I was stuck having to explain to her that no, you aren’t doing anything illegal, you’re just…well, I wasn’t sure what to say you were. Because, honestly, I’m having a hard time convincing myself you’re not at least experimenting with things.” The playful tone she took was masking true concern, he knew, but what was more concerning wasn’t so much what she was saying as it was the way she looked at him while she did it.

Not necessarily the actual act of looking, but rather the appearance she had as she did it. Had she always looked so young and nervous? “Believe me when I say that I am not on anything, except a lack of sleep I was unaware would bother me so much. Why, what was I doing that prompted that fear?” Honestly he had no idea what it could have been, but he wasn’t worried so much with what the answer was so much as he was with the fact that he seemed to be staring down someone who looked just like she had years before—but when he tried to figure out anything about the sudden youthfulness he saw in her face, his mind drew a blank, the only thing coming to it a vague sounding of his name in her voice, although her lips were moving to a different set of words.

“Are you even listening to me?” she asked, waving a hand in front of his face, and he shook his head in response. “What’s your problem? I thought you’d get a kick out of me trying to tell you about how excited and happy the boys were, but spacing out on what their names were, but you just looked blankly at me. Are you getting lost in your thoughts?”

“Truthfully, it is more like getting consumed by them.”

“Oh, if that’s what this is about, that makes a bit more sense than you doing drugs or something weird. Lately I’ve been having the hardest time keeping reality and what I wish was reality separated, and I bet that’s what you’re doing right now.” She took a step back from him and tilted her head slightly as she smiled at him. “Come on, let me know how it is. What’s the version of me in your mind like?”

Taking the time to look at her carefully and try to think about where this image of her had come from, it was not an easy question to answer when Alejandro realized he knew where he was imagining her from. He’d seen the dress she was wearing before, as it had been hanging in the closet for a long time. Since before the first time they’d done this same thing, in fact, and he could remember two distinct times before the current one where she’d worn it: for those ill-fated pictures, and for their first one of these reveal parties. And he knew which version of her it seemed like was standing before him, and he had to tell himself not to say that truth to refrain from sounding insensitive. “She is exactly like the one that stands before me at this moment.”

“Huh, that’s odd. I was sure you were going to say that she’s older, wiser, and become completely submissive to things she’d never go along with, but if you want to tell me that lie, go right ahead. I’ll believe it, because that’s what you want me to do.” Her smile disappearing, Heather straightened her head as she narrowed her eyes to look at him. “You’re always right, after all, and everything is the way you want it to be.”

“I do not think I understand what you are implying there,” he said, stepping a bit closer to her. “Everything is how _I_ want it to be? I am fairly certain that everything is the way it is because we made it that way together.”

“Yeah, you would think that, wouldn’t you? Just look around! Everything’s so perfect and fitting for you, not for me! Do you really think I’d have allowed any of this if it was my decision to make? Of course not!” She reached out and pointed a finger at him, touching the tip of his nose as she did; his mind told him that something like that had happened before, but he couldn’t think of the specific situation. “Everything here is according to you. Every last detail of our lives is perfectly yours!”

He pushed her hand away and tried to come up with something that went against her words, but coming up with an example was easier said than done. As if he was summoned to the location at that very moment, the cat came strolling in, brown and white fur perfectly groomed and not showing even a trace of age, and he figured that it was a sign that he was supposed to use that animal as his evidence. “What about the pet I got for you? If it were truly my decision, would I have gotten such a creature?”

“I had no say in him being here. Although, gotta love his name, hm?” She smirked at him as he tried to remember the cat’s name to no avail. “Funny how he’s got the name of something so trivial yet so memorable. Who could forget a cat named after ice cream? Just like how no one could ever forget the dog I would _never_ want around that you used one of the names I picked out for? Of course you’d use a name that you feel we didn’t need around.”

“What are you implying with all of that?” Now it was his turn to point at her, although he didn’t go so far as to touch her with his pointed finger. “Are you trying to tell me that I have created this life we lead on my own?”

“Why would I do that? Oh, right, because you did exactly what you just said.” The way she said it was forceful and slightly condescending, and as part of his reaction to it, he went ahead and touched her with one finger, which seemed to break whatever surreal illusion his lack of sleep had just put him through, because he wasn’t touching her on the nose like he had thought he was. He had just poked her straight in the mouth while she was in the middle of some word, and she bit down on his finger, causing him to give a small yell in pain, pulling his hand back as she laughed at him. “That’s what you get for putting your finger in there,” she playfully said, watching him shake his hand to try and rid it of the pain. “Wasn’t sure what you were going to do with that, especially since I was just talking about you touching me.”

There was no way he was going to be able to do like he had done before when he had gotten lost in a fantasy while talking to Andres, and that meant that he was just going to have to respond blindly. Or, at least, that was what he intended to do, but then he noticed that everyone who had gathered for the occasion had surrounded them, and were looking at them as if they were expecting something. Then it sank in that he had no idea what he was supposed to be doing, and there was no way he was going to find out easily. “What were you expecting me to do with it?” he asked, hoping she’d tell him a good answer so that he could figure out what he had missed while fantasizing.

“You’re supposed to do a cutesy pose with your wife, that’s what!” Sierra’s voice, as loud and grating as always, was hard on his ears, but everyone around seemed to agree with what she had just yelled out, none more than the woman standing before him. As they stared at each other, with the crowd around them watching expectantly, Sierra once again called out what should have been happening: “Like the last time, you two! Just like everyone’s been dying to see since you lovebirds decided to keep making babies!”

The position she was demanding was one of those things that he’d never be able to forget about, because it was one of those moments in life that he always found himself thinking back to. How could he forget how that had gone, where he had gotten down on his knees in front of the woman he loved so much and lost himself in the kisses meant for the unborn child within her until the only other person present had ruined the surprise of what gender said unborn child was? That was easily one of the best times in his life, where he had been proven right about his family being cursed in regards to only having sons…but, as he started positioning himself how he was expected to be, how many times had he been right? There was that time he’d never forget, which was forever ingrained in his mind, but there weren’t any times after that, were there?

Somewhere, deep in the back of his mind, his name was being called by multiple voices. Were they trying to drag him into another illusion, where he was wrong all along and everything he had lived through up to this point was a dream? Or were they just calling attention to him desperately needing sleep? Either way, it was all in his head, and there was no sense dwelling on it, not when people (who had never cared and never honestly would) were waiting to witness a tender moment between two people in way over their heads and their child.

A child that was going to be loved and wanted, regardless of gender or interests or any aspect to them. He closed his eyes, trying to think about the other kids that came before this one but coming up with blank names to faces that were nothing more than renderings that one of those cheap phone games would come up with. Was that all they were? That’s how it felt and while he knew that admitting to that was going to be hard, if anyone found out that he was losing touch with his children, who knew how much would be forgiven. The calling of his name grew louder, as he tried to just think, to focus on what was going on, but it grew to be too much, especially when he felt a hand on his head, running its fingers through his hair.

He opened his eyes, and the immediate sight was the same as what he had closed them to, the creamy color of the dress the love of his life was wearing giving him hope that he was still rooted in reality—but then the silence of the room hit him like a ton of bricks. The only sound he could hear was his name being called, by two different voices, and he looked up to see his wife’s wide eyes, her face full of worry, but also young and tired and everything she was meant to be at that point in time.

* * *

“Fifteen minutes. You’re telling me that you imagined the entire next _nine years_ in fifteen minutes?” Sounding equal parts confused and impressed, Heather looked at Alejandro with her head resting on her hands, her elbows propped up on the counter before them. “I can’t say that I haven’t tried to do the same, but…”

“You at least make sure to limit where you fall into a fantasy,” he responded. “I cannot believe that it happened like that. I do apologize, because it must have been worrisome for you both to witness such behavior.” As the two women said that it was, explaining their thought processes on the matter, he took the time to look around the kitchen where they had relocated once he had snapped back into reality. The fridge was the first thing he saw, and looking at it so many thoughts about what he had just been experiencing came to him, first and foremost being the specific flavor of ice cream that was the answer for the hangman puzzle on the whiteboard. The second thing he made note of was their baby name list, held up with one of many letter magnets. While he couldn’t remember the male names when the fantasy world he had built was crumbling, he knew they were safe and sound on that sheet of paper, even if the faces he had put to them were lost to the ages. As for the female names, there was only one he bothered to know, and he still strongly hoped that the only chance of use it would find would be for naming a pet.

“You know, if it weren’t for the fact that you’ve been doing that sort of thing for months, I’d ask what sorts of nonsense you imagined us going through. I mean, there’s only so many different stories you’d be able to come up with, right?” He wasn’t sure if it was possible for her to be right about that. He had elaborately imagined a large chunk of time, using all sorts of details from their lives, as well as idyllic ones he wanted, as his base, much like he had been for all the times he’d dreamed up the perfect future before. “But let me guess, like always, it was all boys, huh?”

He nodded, looking at the name list still as he tried to remember anything, even the smallest of details, about the four kids he’d been imagining. “There is simply no other way that things will end up. I have explained that to you many times now.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know you have. I still think you’re full of it about that. So what if it’s been that way for everyone else in your family? We’re going to be different, and that’s just how it’s going to be.” He rolled his eyes, before turning to see that Heather was grinning at him, pleased by what she had said. “If either of us are going to get to live our fantasies, it’s going to be me, and you’ll just have to deal with it.”

“Will I? I would much rather live through one of my fantasies than ever suffer through one of yours.” It was then her turn to roll her eyes at him as he got the chance to grin at her, and watching the banter between the two, Sierra clapped and laughed, which reminded him of something that he did vividly remember from what he had just been through. “Ahem, Sierra, may I make a few requests of you?” he asked, causing her to pause all motion and implore him for what said requests were. “The top priority here, please stop talking so much about people we once associated with. My mind took some of your ramblings about certain people and decided it was appropriate to place them into my dreaming. Even though it was ultimately fake, I would much rather never think about my children interacting with such filth that you seem to appreciate.”

“Oh, like Izzy or Noah, huh?” Sierra scratched the back of her head as she thought about agreeing to not talking about them, but shrugged the thoughts off. “I guess that’s totally doable. Even though, like I’ve said before, they’d love to come see you guys sometime, maybe, if I’m around and stuff like that. Or maybe I’m thinking of different people.” She gave a small snort as she laughed a bit. “I’m just too super excited for you guys to finally find out what this baby’s gonna be.”

Like they had at so many points before, they both replied to Sierra saying the gender they preferred, but this time there was no fighting afterward. There wasn’t a reason to argue anymore, not when there was a way for them to finally settle the score once and for all in the room with them. The single problem with actually getting around to settling it was that both of them had invested so much in thinking about their side of the argument and what life would be like for them to be right, that so much as accepting that the other person could actually be right seemed impossible. What good would that fifteen minute fantasy do if there was no way it was going to become true?

Cutting into the cake that held the colored frosting was a moment to be photographed and remembered forever, the pictures showing not just the color that would change their lives but the look on both of their faces as they now knew which one of them was going to get to start living out their fantasy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I fully expect everyone to be upset about this, er, turn of events. It was all a dream? A very, very elaborate dream that takes place over the course of a quarter hour, at that? Yes, and that's how it was intended to be from the moment I came up with how this story was going to progress. Some things had to be left out to achieve this goal, and other things were added in to help make it more plausible. Everything that happened had a reason behind it, and if it wasn't explained in the end, it's because I was working hard to get this chapter done for today. You're welcome to ask me for clarification on things, though.
> 
> But okay, let's get to the reason for why this is how it ends, on a revelation that it's a dream, followed by a cliffhanger that could go either way. I didn't want to make a definite answer and then disappoint y'all, so I've given you the ultimate choice: which one of them gets their way? I mean, they were both having these elaborate fantasies catering to their specific desires, and I chose to follow only one of them. (No, this isn't me saying I'm going to write what Heather's fantasy was. Don't get me started on that.)
> 
> Anyway, thank you for sticking around for this accidentally monstrous fic! What started out as a birthday present ended up being one of the most surreal fic rides I've ever created!


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